It’s probably not the best of times for single farmers in the country. A man who works in the agriculture sector is 64 per cent less likely to find a match on Shaadi.com.
Things aren’t quite different for women employed in the sector either. These women are 18 per cent less ‘preferred’ than an average woman who maintains a profile on the website, according to the matrimonial site’s newly-released report titled ‘India’s most eligible’.
Shaadi.com claims to have over 50 million people registered on the site over the last 20 years. The report, according to the website, was published after analysing profiles of its 2.5 million users residing in India.
The report shows that among single men, the ones who receive more interest from prospective partners are civil servants, IT and software engineers and airline and aviation employees. “Women in contemporary jobs such as architecture, aviation, tech and marketing are seen as highly desirable. Both unemployed men and women are the least desired,” notes the report. The company also adds that currently, the most ‘eligible’ single woman is a 29-year-old law enforcement officer, while her male counterpart is a 30-year-old civil servant. They are the people who received the most interest from fellow users.
The income gap
The most eligible man, according to the website, is just a year older than the most ‘eligible’ woman. However, the income gap between the two is quite wide. While he earns somewhere between ₹15 lakh and ₹30 lakh per annum, the law enforcement officer makes somewhere between ₹4 to ₹7 lakh a year.
“Men making more money are far more desired than other men, whereas, for women, the difference is negligible across income brackets. It is around the ₹7-10 lakh income mark, where the disparity is the least and where both men and women are seen as equally desirable,” according to the report.
The report also shows that women are most likely to find a match when they’re 26-29 years old, and men when they’re 28-31 years. “Over the last decade, the average age for marriage has moved up by 2 years, with the age for men increasing by 2.5 years and by 1 year for women.”