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Why women are now travelling for transformative wellness
Summary
Women dealing with mid-career and mid-life decisions are turning to healing programmes tailored by women
Last week, Bengaluru-based interior designer Meenakshi Ramanujam spent four days at a wellness retreat after a friend sent her an Instagram story about it. What made it particularly unusual was that the retreat, Suki Suki, was in Cherrapunji, Meghalaya, and it was conceptualised entirely by three women and designed solely for the needs of women from any walk of life—be it homemakers, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and more. To describe Ramanujam’s life as the design head of a large firm as “hectic" is an understatement. “Every (wellness retreat) I had attended before had been for mixed groups. Women have their own emotional and physical needs, and I found it interesting that a retreat was recognising that," she says of Suki Suki, which saw six resident and eight day participants in November.
Claiming to be the first women’s wellness retreat in the North-East, Suki Suki was started in October by nutrition coach and health consultant Habari Warjri, yoga and sound therapist Priyanjali Das and experience curator Teiskhem Lynrah. It is conceptualised around three pillars: nutrition, mindset and environment. The first retreat, which Ramanaujam attended, was held at Sa-i-Mika Park resort, where participants were charged around ₹42,000 for a single room, and ₹37,000 for double sharing and day passes. Terming itself a “niche service", Suki Suki plans to host more than one such retreat a year.
The three founders felt it was apt to have a women’s retreat in a state that has been home to matrilineal indigenous communities for centuries. Moreover, with each of them navigating different phases of womanhood—Das, a single woman; Lynrah, a new mother who has experienced postpartum challenges; and Warjri, a mother of two grown children—they hoped to bring unique perspectives and expertise to the table. “While each of us had previously contemplated similar initiatives independently, our meeting sparked the realisation that our combined strengths could create a powerful team to make a meaningful impact when it comes to wellness of the mind, body and soul," says Lynrah. They decided to start Suki Suki as a commune where women could share, connect and grow, while prioritising their physical and mental needs.
The world that women—“at any stage of womanhood"—inhabit now is very different from the one that they grew up in, explains Das. With so much information at the fingertips—about war, death, crime, technology, climate crisis—this might be a generation of urban liberal women caught up in a highly overstimulated world. “As the world feels like it’s falling apart, it is important to empower and support women who are shaping the future. I came across Tei and Habari, who had similar aspirations," she says.
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Cherrapunji is Lynrah’s hometown and she is mindful of not being disrespectful of her ancestral land. In order to honour its landscape and not usher in blatant mindless tourism, the group size has been kept small, and the retreat is organised within sustainable spaces. Warjri too hails from Meghalaya and makes sure to use local seasonal produce in the meals she curates for participants.
Structured around the five elements, the itinerary includes sound baths, sharing circles, walks to caves, waterfalls and the state’s iconic natural heritage—the living root bridges—, soul food exploration, and more. The food programme is sustainable, and includes elements that enhance the gut health, and balance in women’s bodies. “I had never experienced concepts such as womb meditation. I have done other forms, which are focused on the entire body, but not something that was this specific to women," elaborates Ramanujam.
The retreat comes at a time when the dialogue around women’s health and wellness is growing. A recent LinkedIn post by Navneet Kaur, CEO of FemTech India, a platform for healthtech startups for women, states that the market for women’s health and wellness in India is expected to touch $1.325 billion by 2030, with a compounded annual growth rate of 7.8%. Carina Kohli, who helms Humm Care, a startup dedicated to healthcare for women in corporate India, says this segment was largely underserved until a few years ago. Today, women are looking for solutions crafted by fellow women, who bring a certain empathy and relatability to the process.
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“Only a woman can understand the depth of postpartum depression or the emotional toll that reintegration into office after maternity leave can take. At Humm, we realise that the physiological, emotional and mental aspects of a woman’s health carry equal weightage," says Kohli, 30, who started Humm as a pregnancy and fertility management company but has expanded to include 360-degree health and wellness. Women in corporate India no longer want healing and health to be two different experiences. Rather, they are looking for integrated, holistic solutions that link emotional well-being and physiological health. For instance, there is a need for programmes that delve into the ways sleep impacts fertility, or how gut issues and stress are related. “They want care coaches and wellness experts who help them on this journey," adds Kohli. This trend has gained steam after the covid-19 pandemic.
Parallel to this shift is the rise in the country’s wellness tourism market. Mordor Intelligence pegs this segment at $19.43 billion in 2024 and expects it to reach $26.55 billion by 2029. Sharmilee Kapur, founder-director, Atmantan, a luxury wellness retreat located in Mulshi, Pune, has noticed this demand for women-specific wellness programmes as well. While members of all genders are active consumers of soft wellness, it is women who are more receptive to transformative wellness, she says. It is 'single women' who are largely travelling in search of such experiences. “Within this segment, those who are over 40 and are perimenopausal, recognise the need for wellness-related travel that equips them to better handle specific emotional and physical changes that accompany this chapter of their lives. We are also seeing a rise in holidays being undertaken by women, who are currently going through menopause. Their kids have grown up and they are financially independent and now have the time to address the need for overall wellbeing and prioritise themselves!," she adds.
The women usually come in groups of two or three and look forward to making connections with a larger set of like-minded people at Atmantan. “You could be suffering from a hormonal imbalance, may have gone through a separation or just be super-stressed. We customise our programmes in a way that a person gets the maximum benefit from their wellness travel," says Kapur, who calls Atmantan a “serious result-oriented wellness property". Their medical team studies blood markers, lifestyles and genetics of its guests, and plans the programme accordingly. “The blood markers might indicate optimum thyroid levels, but there might be other indicators that suggest that hormonal health needs to be an area of focus. There is a lot that women suffer from, which they brush under the carpet, like urinary tract infections, which can consequently lead to other ailments later. Through our transformative wellness programmes, we offer the support as they need to focus on all aspects of wellbeing and address the root causes," she says.
The conversations and sharing of experiences that take place when women dealing with similar life circumstances come together at these retreats can be both nurturing and instructive. “The number of participants is small—and that makes for a safe environment for sharing one’s feelings and emotions. I met fashion designers, engineers and others, not just from different parts of India but abroad as well," says Ramanujam of her time at Suki Suki.
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Manisha Sharma, who works in the visual merchandising department of a lifestyle accessories brand, too travelled from Bengaluru to Cherrapunji specifically for the retreat. “We had a lot of conversations on topics ranging from leadership and empathy to how to balance one’s assertiveness with the nurturing side," says Sharma, 41. “I like the fact that these women have come together to support and nurture other women."
Das says this focus on feminine leadership models was intentional. “Think of this as … a transformational journey that allows a community of women to support each other and view the world from a lens of feminine wisdom."
