The striking down of two colonial-era laws in India seems to have provided a boost to online dating in the country.
Six months ago, India’s supreme court struck down section 377, which criminalised homosexuality. Soon after, it also scrapped section 497, which criminalised adultery.
Nearly 70% of Indian respondents in a recent survey have now said that these changes “will liberate people from their marriage burden and help in having love affairs out of wedlock.”
The survey was conducted in India on Valentine’s Day by extramarital dating site Gleeden, which has 500,000 users in India, all married individuals looking for affair partners.
One-third of respondents who said the legal changes would be liberating were women.
The past six months, Gleeden reports, have seen a 45% increase in same-sex encounters among subscribers on the site. A press release by the company claims this is testament to the fact that after section 377 was abolished, “people feel freer to express their sexual preference and to pursue homosexual or bisexual encounters outside the wedlock.”
Of Gleeden’s subscribers in India, 3% have listed their sexual orientation as homosexual, while 1% have selected bisexual. Slightly more Indian men than women list their preference as homosexual. This 3% is still, however, much less than Gleeden’s global homosexual userbase.