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Marital Rape
Marital Rape
“Rape is a rape”, yes you read it right.
Any kind of rape is an offence and must be punishable under law, whether it could be marital rape or not. But sadly our Indian judiciarl system does not recognise marital rape as an offence. On one hand we have Article 14 of the Indian Constitution that guarantees equality before law and equal protection of laws, whilst on the other we have exception 2 under Section 375 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) which exempts actions perpetrated by husbands against their wives from being considered as ‘rape.’ While many countries have recognised unwilling sexual intercourse between a husband and wife as rape, India lacks behind in this regard. India is one of the thirty-six countries that is yet to criminalize marital rape.
The Indian Penal Code, 1860 codifies rape as an offence under Section 375. It codifies rape as all kind of sexual assault involving non- consensual intercourse with a women, but exception 2 under this Section exempts unwilling intercourse between husband and wife if wife is over 15 years of age, thus immunizing such inhumane act from criminal prosecution. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 outlaws marital rape but has provision only for civil remedies to the victims, which is in no way a justification to the suffering suffered by the victim.
The Supreme Court of India and various High Courts are currently flooded with writ petitions challenging the constitutionality of the exception laid under Section 375 of IPC. In a recent landmark judgment of Independent Thought v. Union of India, (2013) , the Supreme Court criminalized unwilling sexual contact with a wife between fifteen and eighteen years of age. This judgement has led to an increase in other writs challenging the constitutional validity of the exception 2 of Section 375.
Although we have plethora of statutes that intends to protect women from violence, harassment and sexual abuse including ‘The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act’, ‘Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act ; the problem lies in the society who believes that it is not possible for a husband to rape his wife. Women who gathered the courage and raised a voice against such abuses are shattered by lack of support. They are not supported by their in-laws and family members. The police in this regard is negligent and closes the matter in the name of “personal issue” and hence denies help. There have been instances where women raise voices against such act but fail. Women are dominated by men in this regard as mostly wives depend on their husband to provide for necessities, and hence finds themselves in a helpless situation.
As of the last updated data of Dilaasa over 60% of Married Women have accepted that they had suffered some form of sexual abuse from their partners mostly forced sex. It is time for India to understand that ‘no means no’ and they cannot force a women to have unwilling sexual intercourse whether she is her wife or any other women. Stringent steps needs to be taken against such an offence.
