Breaking with traditions, young Indians embrace dating apps

In this June 11, 2015 photo, Indian girls take a selfie at a party hosted by TrulyMadly, one of India’s online dating apps in Gurgaon, India. The dating app market in India has exploded in recent yearShow more

NEW DELHI // Aditi Mendiratta’s biggest worry as she’s swiping left and right is hiding the smartphone notifications that read “Congratulations! You have a new match” from her parents.

“They wouldn’t be cool with it,” the 20-year-old journalism student said, flipping her long black hair out of her face.

“I’d probably be lectured a zillion times about how irresponsible I am.”

Ms Mendiratta is one of hundreds of thousands of young Indians nervously exploring online dating apps – and breaking with India’s centuries-old traditions governing marriage and social conduct.

The dating app market has exploded in recent years, with more than a dozen companies operating in India and more than a million smartphone users who have downloaded at least one of them.

The success of social dating apps may be somewhat surprising in India, a deeply conservative country where arranged marriage is still the norm and marrying outside of one’s religious or ethnic community is often frowned upon.

But youths raised during an era of economic growth and modernisation are eagerly embracing western ideas, and increasingly willing to risk scandal to do so.

“In India, you need to have a reference to speak with anyone,” Sagar Datta, 24, an interior designer who has met at least 20 people, both men and women, he was introduced to through an app. “I never imagined strangers would be open to meeting strangers, just by looking at pictures of each other.”

App developers are seizing on what they see as enormous potential in India, where half of the 1.2 billion population is younger than 25 and smartphone sales are projected to surge 67 per cent this year alone. Indian companies are coming up with home-grown dating apps to compete with overseas apps like Los Angeles-based Tinder. Some even have quirky names such as Woo, Thrill, TrulyMadly, HitchUp and DesiCrush.

But because dating is still widely seen as a social taboo in India, “it is very difficult to get girls in India to start using a dating app”, said Sachin Bhatia, co-founder of India’s TrulyMadly.

Success also requires navigating extra security concerns, developers said. India has been roiled in recent years by a series of high-profile cases of gang rape and violence against women, leading to front-page headlines and stricter laws on women’s safety.

“We realised verification, security and privacy are very important” to women, Mr Bhatia said. “That’s what brings women to the app. They like to join an app where they can be sure that you will not have married men, stalkers or folks like that.”

To do so, TrulyMadly encourages men to upload copies of their passports or other government-issued IDs, or to verify their phone numbers – all measures that might raise red flags over privacy in the West.

Some young Indian women say they’ve been thrilled by the chance to chat with men they might not meet through family functions or in the office. Others relish the attention they receive.

“I’d be showered with compliments from 10 different guys every time I logged on. It made me feel extremely good about myself,” said Anandita Malhotra, 19, a student.

While Ms Malhotra and many others may be dabbling in dating through the social apps, they’re not all quite ready to give up letting their parents choose their spouse.

“I want to have an arranged marriage,” she said, flatly, adding that she recently told her mother, “‘I don’t trust my choice in men. So you will have to find me someone.’”

* Associated Press