In India when should an individual start independent living?

No I don’t think this should happen in India. Indian society is very different from its western counterparts and open aping the west will not benefit us in any way. We have our own value and social support system and we should work within that for our overall development. For children here to move out at 16/ 17 yrs would first require the mothers to change. Would you really want you mom to change or would you really allow your child to sleep alone from 3 or 4 yrs? Would any Indian mother make her child wash dishes, clean floors and help in the household work for an early age? Here I am not debating about whether this is good or bad, but we Indians are brought up in a different way and overnight you just cannot change things. Then there are social issues of divorce and living together which I don’t think will benefit our society. Living independently from an early age is bound to increase the rates of divorce and living-together without marriage in our society. And then there are our parents. Western nations have various schemes of looking after their aged which we lack in India. So I think the best for us would be to attain a certain age and maturity (say 25+), get a job, get married and then start living independently while keeping connections with our parents too.

I believe Indians have followed the best of all cultures unless done with no misconception. Children need to go through all the difficulties the same way their parents did in their course of life. Parents can make it better by being with them for more time and follow their advices. Because they can lead through the path best suited for you as they know it well from their own past experiences. I've got to learn much about life from parents.

I don't live in India, or a country similar to India. However, I do think 21 seems like a good age to live with parents until. Honestly, in America we are considered adults at age 18. I know from experience and from watching other kids that age that 18 year olds are not ready to make life choices yet. So many bad decisions happen between age 18 and 21, and so many of those decisions make an impact on life for a LONG time. For example, a person can ruin their credit for years to come just based on poor usage of credit cards. These are not bad people, they are just not ready for the choices they are allowed to make. It has been proven that the human brain does not fully mature until the early 20s. I think keeping a child under a parents wing until then makes sense. I don't think that being out on their own fosters maturity.

great thinking! but indians child arn't under the parents shades! is true that child should not be kept under the shade of their parent they should be allowed to move free so that they can understand the world itself. rather than seeing the world from their parents eyes! parents keep the child away from bad side of the world so they keep under their shades till a particular stage.