“It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in Indian context due to various factors , including level of education, illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat marriage as a sacrament.”
In what can be considered a major affront to Indian women, the Minister for State of Home, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary made these remarks in reply to a written question by DMK’s K Kanimojhi, who sought to know whether the government was planning to amend the law to make marital rape a crime, citing an appaling UN estimate that 75% of the married women in India are subjected to rape by their husbands.
The government, in reply, has made it amply clear that it has no intention to make marital rape a crime, rather justifies it by stating that the religious beliefs of India consider marriage a sacrament, and hence a term like ‘marital rape’ makes no sense in Indian legal argot.
Approximations have quoted that every 6 hours, a young married woman is burnt or beaten to death, or driven to suicide from emotional abuse from her husband. The UN population Fund states that more than 2/3rds of the married women in India aged between 15 to 49 years have been beaten, raped, or forced to provide sex. According to an article by CNN, the number of women sexually assaulted by their husbands is 40 times the number of women attacked by men they don’t know. Yet, marital rape is legal.
The Criminal Law( Amendment) Act 2013, states, in no ambiguous terms that “Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.” In other words, the so called ‘sacred’ institution of marriage is reduced to a contract between a man and a woman, wherein a woman is obliged to offer sex and physical satisfaction to her husband under whatsoever conditions.
Marital rape, a phrase that does not exist in the legal lexicon of our country, has been actively suppressed and dismissed by the political class, as a ‘controversial’ issue with no easy solution. They have managed to arrest the sexual freedom of Indian women under the pretext of religion and culture. The 2012 report to the Parliament, for instance, says “If marital rape is brought under the law, the entire family system will be under great stress”. There can indeed be no more direct way of admitting to the country that forced sexual intercourse is a huge factor on which the institution of marriage relies in our country. This is the most arrant way of admitting to the implicitly held social belief that women are the “sexual property” of men. The ubiquitous dismissal of marital rape in the name of religion and culture has reduced marriage, which is supposed to be an institution based on mutual love, respect and understanding to a mere legal procedure that entitles a man the pleasures of a woman as his wish for a lifetime.
In the patriarchal society of India, which already gives a woman little chance to speak for herself, it requires tremendous courage and grit for a woman to seek justice from a husband who sexually assaults her. Add to that is the legal impunity such men enjoy at the hands of the political class, and you have the perfect recipe for a society where a thing like an ‘independent woman’ ceases to exist.
The horrors of marital rape and the levels of brutality are no less that those perpetuated on women by men other than their husbands. Moreover, the victims of marital rape have no refuge from the consistent tortures inflicted upon them, and are forced to suffer the atrocities day after day. A 27-year old marital rape survivor said on NDTV that her husband would insert torches in her vagina, and would strangle her using pillows while he forcibly had intercourse with her. Another survivor on the same show recounted her story, and said that her husband would often sprinkle chilli powder on her vagina.
These are just two of the numerous cases that take place in our houses day after day, just because our society considers women the sexual property of first, their fathers and brothers, who protect their honour by protecting the chastity of their daughters and sisters, and then of husbands, who think they own the sexuality of their wives.
A lot needs to be changed to make Indian women truly independent. Let’s begin with ourselves.
I would be glad to know what you think about this topic. Please share your views on the same.
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