For 40-year old Sutapa Sikdar, getting her own place on the outskirts of India's capital city New Delhi meant navigating a barrage of questions from landowners and brokers about her marital history.

"I wasn't allowed to stay in certain [places] because I am a woman," Sikdar said. "If you're single or divorced, landowners said they can't allow it."

Sikdar's experience is not uncommon. DW spoke with more than half a dozen women living alone across Indian cities, from sprawling urban centers like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore to smaller cities such as Raipur.

Many have faced hurdles such as housing discrimination and neighborhood scrutiny while constantly having to negotiate between their safety and independence. On an everyday level, they often encounter landlords who reject tenants without families, and those women who manage to find a home tend to also find that their new neighbors are constantly monitoring their moves.

Renting 'difficult to navigate'

Sangita Rajan, 30, from the coastal city of Chennai, now lives in a shared apartment. Though she's lived alone before, she says the process was "difficult to navigate."

"Anywhere I went, the brokers would ask if I was single or married or if I was living with somebody," she said.

Rajan also said she faced similar prejudice while living alone in Delhi.

"The assumption is that if you're single, your lifestyle is questionable, like you're partying or bringing chaos."

Even now, according to Rajan, her neighbors keep a watchful eye.

"They do observe when I come and go."

Nosy neighbors and privacy battles

For a 29-year-old woman based in Raipur, who wanted to be called Sanjana, the challenges didn't end after she found a place to live.

"Finding a flat wasn't difficult," she said, "but sustaining the space, making it feel safe, both psychologically and physically, is the real challenge."

Just a month after moving into a new apartment, she said neighbors began complaining to her landlord "that a lot of guy friends come home."

"There's a lot of judgment over consuming alcohol or smoking," she added.

Sanjana shared one incident when she opened the door early in the morning to let a repair worker in. "I was wearing a nightgown, and the woman downstairs called me later to say she has two young boys, and asked if I didn't feel shame about the kind of clothes I wear."

Eventually, her landlord began questioning her about overnight visitors and instructed her to "stay within my limits."

'All I wanted was space to work and grow'

Another woman DW spoke with, Aishwarya Dua, 32, from Delhi, said the constant judgment takes a toll.

"The worst part is character assassination," she said. "Apparently, a woman wanting to live by herself means she must be too bold or too modern."

"That's the kind of everyday misogyny women like me face, and it's not always loud or violent but constant, in the doubts, the stares, the patronizing advice," Dua said.

"All I wanted was space to work and grow, not to prove my character to strangers."

Single men seen as risky tenants

Some Indian men also face obstacles while living on their own, as they are seen as potential troublemakers and asked to pay higher deposits.

"Most housing societies don't rent to unmarried people. They assume you'll cause trouble or bring the wrong kind of attention," says 32-year-old Ronit Chougule, from Pune in western India.

Furthermore, there are some women who report less hardship than others. Indu Nair, a 46-year-old single mother, says her experience of living alone in various Indian cities has been "broadly positive" due to the support she received from neighbors, and her parents who would visit regularly to help take care of her son.

Her professional standing, first as a corporate executive and now as a business owner, also earned her respect, she told DW.

At the same time, she recalls a neighbor probing her decision when she left her job to start her own business.

"I felt very judged by his comments," Nair said.

Anxiety over women's freedom going beyond India

Malavika Rajkotia, an Indian author and prominent lawyer focusing on family law, said the discomfort with women's independence is both cultural and deeply gendered.

"There's anxiety about women being empowered and independent," she said. "It's just another form of control."

Rajkotia said the resistance usually comes from men unsettled by women's growing financial autonomy.

"I don't see this as an Indian phenomenon, it's a cultural Asian phenomenon," she said.

Even while dealing with "primitive morality" of policing women, "living independently can be deeply rewarding," she told DW.

"It lets you filter out people you don't want to deal with," the lawyer said. "It's a good price to pay for freedom."

Indian society already shifting

Rajkotia also questioned the belief that family life offers inherent safety, pointing to cases of domestic violence within families. While acknowledging the conservative pushback, she sees it as a sign of ongoing social change.

"Women are managing their lives better, saving better, living better, and that causes resentment," she said. "Because some men still think that's a man's role simply by virtue of being a man."

Rajkotia believes more women should set up their lives independently.

"It's a great thing ... And society needs to get used to it."

Edited by: Darko Janjevic