Dear Parents, We Are Mature Enough To Marry But Not To Travel Alone?

Women travelling alone: Most Indian women can enjoy freedom only to an extent. While many of them are able to get an education and secure their future, there are always limitations to what they can enjoy.

When 20-something women express the desire to travel on their own, many of them are faced with the regressive remark, "travel all you want after you get married." How will a husband enhance my travel experience? Why is it even a condition?

Why can't Indian parents understand the joys and learnings that come from travelling alone? Being alone in the beach sand, feeling the morning mist on a hill station, making new friends on the way and there are so many new experiences one gets to live while travelling.

For someone who was never allowed to travel alone, hearing other people share their solo travel experiences has been a treat. How someone managed to eat a lot more because they stayed in an economical hostel. How someone made friends with locals of a hill station and was welcomed for a hearty meal to their home. These experiences not only become great conversation starters in the future but also make one learn so much more about life and independence.

Most Indian parents impose restrictions not because they don't want to see their daughters happy but because they are concerned about their safety and scared about how other people will treat them.

While the concern is fair, there comes a point when keeping someone safe starts feeling like keeping them captive. Sure there are bad things happening on the streets and crimes against women have only increased but does that mean we should never be out and free? Just so something bad does not happen to us, are we supposed to stop living?

It is freedom only if it is boundless. Whether it's taking a road trip with friends, traveling solo to the mountains, a vacation in a secluded place, women should be able to do everything they want. Nobody can guarantee what will happen in the next moment so if we can assume that bad things happen to women when are out on the road, we can easily imagine them having a good time and living life-changing moments. If women in their early 20s are considered "mature enough" to marry a stranger, they are easily capable of travelling on their own.

Views expressed by the author are their own.

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