A serious social problem in India

There is a serious social problem in India which has not been addressed. So I am discussing it here.

Almost every woman, after a certain age, wants to have children. This is natural. There is a powerful principle in nature, and that is that while individuals will all die, the species must continue. For this the main role among humans is played by the female. She has to conceive the child, have it in her womb for 9 months, then deliver it, breast feed and rear the child for many years, etc.

Of course a woman can have a child without marriage, but usually this is frowned upon in most societies. So women seek husbands, in order to have children.

In earlier times, the parents would arrange the marriage of their children, often when the latter were teenagers. But now boys and girls often concentrate on first building up a career before marrying. The result is that often girls remain unmarried even in their late twenties or thirties. They get highly qualified, but are getting on in years without marrying, and therefore without children. This can cause serious psychological problems in some of them.

Also, in late age ( i.e. in their late twenties or thirties ) girls often do not find suitable highly qualified partners, for most boys have already got married, and few are left available.This can cause depression or other mental problems in the woman, for one is going against nature, and if one goes against nature, nature will hit back.

This is a growing social problem in India.

In Western countries there is the dating system, and most girls have sex even before marriage, and decide to get married often after dating for long periods, but that system is not very widespread in India. Here what is happening is that in middle class families the boy’s and girl’s parents introduce them ( often at the girl’s father’s house ) and they may meet once or twice again, and then they are asked whether they are agreeable to get married.

By that time the boy may be 28 or 29, and the girl 25 or 26. By that age the personalities of both have become rigid, and is no longer flexible and adjustable. The result is that suddenly one finds one is living with a stranger. Sometimes the marriage works out, but sometimes it does not. The result is that today law courts in India are flooded with cases of divorce, maintenance and custody of children, whereas in earlier times divorce was extremely rare ( in fact no divorce was permitted among Hindus until the enactment of the Hindu Marriage Act in 1955 ) because boy and girl were married by their parents in their teens when the personality is flexible, and the couple grew up together as friends and adjusted to each other.

P.S.

Some people have asked me the solution to these problems. I confess I have none, and am only stating the problem.