Marriages are considered to be very sacred and auspicious all over the world and perhaps that is why a person’s life is considered incomplete until they marry and “settle” down irrespective of their many other accomplishments. However, the institution of marriage is so strongly worshiped in India that even the law fails to accept the flaws it could hold. Marital rape is one such flaw that is still invisible to people’s eyes. But is this fair to the oppressed?
Marital rape or spousal rape is the act of sexual intercourse with one's spouse without the spouse's consent. However, this is not the definition given by any section of the IPC. Surprisingly, Indian law does not even consider this as a crime and is something we are still fighting to change.
Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code defines rape as “sexual intercourse with a woman against her will, without her consent, by coercion, misrepresentation, or fraud, or at a time when she has been intoxicated or duped or is of unsound mental health and in any case if she is under 18 years of age.” However, exception two from the same section states that ‘sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15 years of age, is not rape’. The question here is that, does only the title of a ‘husband’ give a man a right to force a woman into something she’s unwilling for? Does a woman become obliged to accept a man’s every wish just because she’s his ‘wife’? Moreover, this statement also highlights the lack of revision of the Indian law as it mentions the age as 15 in the above exemption even though child marriage has been criminalised a long time back.
In India, marriages bring with them a lot of responsibilities and obligations and often these obligations are mistaken by many as ignorance to the basic rights. For instance, women are expected to be obedient to their husbands. It’s also perceived by some that the husband is God-like to the wife and hence she must serve him, even if that serving costs her her freedom or even her dignity. These perspectives sometimes lead to the husband believing himself to be the master and therefore reflecting his wife as “his” property. Forcing ones’ wife to have non-consensual sex, with the tag of marriage is fully acceptable and therefore, marital rape is not considered rape by most of us.
The scenario worsens as we move towards rural and underdeveloped areas. The women of marginalised sections of the community are more vulnerable to marital rape. Not only the husband but also his family persuades violence against the wife to keep the pride of the family intact. What worsens the situation is the fact that women who are found to be the victim of such practices either don't know their rights or are too afraid to go and seek help. And because such women do not raise their voices, the society keeps oppressing them, believing that this is not unacceptable for the rural women, but only for a few ‘high-class-educated’ ones.
Before jumping onto believing the aforementioned, let us see what actually makes rape a rape. It is either ‘against a woman’s will’ i.e with opposition and resistance or ‘without her consent’ i.e without an agreement or permission. If any of the above is a part of sexual intercourse, then it will be considered rape and must be punishable even if it happens between wedded couples.
India is one of the few 32 countries in the world to not criminalize marital rape yet and we still call ourselves a developing nation, when the basic right of a woman is neglected in the name of marriage. However, just blaming the law won’t do, we have to first bring a change within us. We must understand the importance of consent. A no is a no, irrespective of the relationship the two people share. If she resists, no one has a right to force her into something. A woman is not someone’s asset, rather she has her own rights and must stand up for them. A husband must support and respect his wife's choices and decisions even if they contradict his.
Marital rape must be criminalised to give women the support they need. The recent judgment of the Kerela High Court on 6th August 2021, where it precisely outlined what marital rape is and upheld it as valid grounds for divorce makes us believe that there’s hope for every woman to stand up for herself and value her above all.
So let's come together to bring a change and drive marital rape to fade away.
This is the topic which mostly everyone ignores.... This is a great step one should understand that No means no, maybe means no , silence also means no and most importantly a woman should be aware of her rights and she should stand her ground bcoz if she is not initiating and raise her voice against it then no one will support her ... Anyways a great step and hope it helps women aware of her rights 🙂🙂👍
Non-consensual intercourse act (rape) is illegal whenever it is done, to whomever it is done, regardless of the relationship between the rapist and the victim. Marriage is not a blanket harmony for intercourse.