Indian Women Do Date

TIMES OF INDIA - Jun 12 - "Dating is uncommon in India. Educated women are still conservative and politely decline when asked out. They don't even shake hands much, let alone display other gestures of affection." This is the gist of the 9th edition of the travellers' guide and scholars' manual released by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) recently. The handbook is one of the foremost travellers' guides for foreign tourists in India. But thanks to the rapidly growing popularity of dating apps - both in the metros and smaller towns - there are figures to prove just how 'out there' Indian women are in the dating game. Apps say that the growth of their user base shows that dating isn't just common, people are open to adopting new platforms for it. Sumesh Menon, CEO & co-founder of Woo, says, "In the last few years, India has adopted lifestyles very similar to those in global mega cities. We have seen a meteoric rise in the number of female users." Woo says it has a user base of 25 lakh in India, with 30% of those being women. They have seen a 50% growth in users in NCR in the last three months alone.