This article is written by Rishav Raj, student of BBA.LL.B. 2nd Semester, of RNB Global University, Bikaner, Rajasthan.
“Her friends used to tell her it wasn’t rape if the man was your husband. She didn’t say anything, but inside she seethed; she wanted to take a knife to their faces.” – F. H. Batacan
Rape is an unlawful sex without assent of a man because of physical drive or dangers, or due to dishonest demonstration of wrongdoer. In India rape by an outsider is a penal offense under section 375 and 376 of IPC, and Domestic violence in India is an entrenched problem, and it has only been exacerbated in the recent years. About 70 per cent of women in India are victims of domestic violence. National crime records Bureau’s (NCRB) ‘crime in india’2019 report was worrisome but not surprising. As per the report in India a women is raped every 16 minutes and every four minutes, she experiences cruelty at the hands if her in-laws
Marital rape is the act of forcing your spouse into having sex without proper assent, is an unjust yet not uncommon way to degrade and disempowering women. Patriarchal structure that manages Indian families has constantly view ladies as unimportant property. His belief system has impacted our legislatures in ignoring offense of spouse rape by giving it shield of wedding right of the spouse and by this they are noiselessly tolerating that ladies are only a item of sexual satisfaction of her better half with no will of her own over her sexuality.
Marital rape is not an offense in India. Section 375, the provision of rape in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), mentions as its exception clause- “Sexual intercourse by man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15 years of age, is not rape.” Hence marital rape is viewed as a rape just if the spouse is less than 15 years old. Today, Marital rape has been charged in more than 100 countries but, unfortunately, India is one of the only 36 countries where marital rape is still not criminalized.
Rape laws in our country continue with the patriarchal outlook of considering women to be the property of men post marriage, with no autonomy or agency over the bodies. They deny married women’s fundamental right of equal protection of the laws which is guaranteed by the Indian constitution. Law makers fail to understand that a marriage should not be views as a license for a husband to forcibly rape his wife with exemption, married women has the same right to control her body as does an unmarried woman. Laws permit that marital rape treat women as the property of their husbands. By the Equality Now’s report titled The World’s Shame: The Global Rape Epidemic found that India was one of only 10 out of 82 jurisdictions surveyed that still legalized rape within marriage and protected the rapist husband from prosecution.
There are always two sides of any problem, if marital rape is criminalized then What about apprehensions on ‘fake cases’ against men? Like 498A, women will have just to say that the husband has raped her that’s it. That will be considered as the grounds for rape and the guy will be humiliated for the rest of his life. Also he can’t prove his innocence since he has to capture his sex life every single day because you never know when the woman plays the victim card. So that’s why this is very dangerous law, and to solve a problem for 1 section of society it may create a problem for another. Also this offence is rebuttable means women has just to say it and doesn’t need to prove, man has to prove that the sex between him and his wife was consensual ad enjoyed by both, wasn’t forced which is impossible. Misuse of the law is a big reason why some individuals, jurists and even men’s rights activists have raised voice over the criminalization of marital rape.
The main reason why it is difficult to make such law is to define the crime, how will anyone prove that he didn’t do marital rape? The argument is that this law would be used against innocent men far more than being used to get justice for real victims if marital rape criminalised. If marital rape does not criminalized there is also problem for woman. And I have full support to government and judicial system, they need enough time to analyses and bring these laws carefully.
ARTICLE BY:
Rishav Raj
BBA.LL.B. 2nd semester
RNB Global University
Rajrishav3071@gmail.com
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