The number of Indian women performing Hajj without a male “Mahram” companion has increased to over 4,300 for the first time since the reforms were implemented last year.
In October of last year, Saudi Arabia lifted the requirement that women over the age of 45 perform pilgrimage with a male guardian, who must be a blood relative with whom marriage is forbidden.
There are over 200 million Muslims in India, and every year, tens of thousands of them make the journey to Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj.
This year, more than 175,000 Indian pilgrims will be able to make the journey. There have been 4,314 female applicants for the solo pilgrimage.
There has never been such a large number of applications from female pilgrims submitted to India’s Ministry of Minority Affairs before.
The ministry previously stated that both individual women and groups of women are welcome to apply to participate in the pilgrimage. According to the ministry, the Indian Consulate in Jeddah will help arrange safe housing for women who travel alone.
Historically, the Indian Hajj Committee provided roughly 500 seats to the country’s most senior constitutional and executive officials each Hajj season.
To coordinate the health needs of the pilgrims during their departure, the ministry has set up health desks at all departing airports and established 25 embarkation points.
The Ministry of Health has announced that it will deploy medical professionals to the holy cities of Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, Arafat, and Mina during the first week of April.
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