oppn parties Forced Sex In Marriage Must Be Considered As Rape

News Snippets

  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
  • Re goes down to 84.76 against the USD but ends flat after RBI intervenes
  • Sin goods like tobacco, cigarettes and soft drinks likely to face 35% GST in the post-compensation cess era
  • Bank credit growth slows to 11% (20.6% last year) with retail oans also showing a slowdown
  • Stock markets continue their winning streak on Tuesday: Sensex jumps 597 points to 80845 and Nifty gains 181 points to 24457
  • Asian junior hockey: Defending champions India enter the finals by beating Malaysia 3-1, to play Pakistan for the title
  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
Australia thrassh India in the 4th Test, dim their chances of making the WTC finals, Rohit, Virat and Rahul fail once again
oppn parties
Forced Sex In Marriage Must Be Considered As Rape

By Tanmaya Das
First publised on 2021-01-16 06:49:33

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Tanmaya is a budding journalist

The issue of marital rape is controversial and a menace for the well being of married women. The high incidence of rape in India is rightly under focus, but increasing domestic violence (aggravated due to the lockdowns during the current pandemic phase) is something which does not get the attention it sorely deserves. Marital rape is a nonconsensual sexual activity where the spouse has the 'license' to rape his wife with impunity. In such cases, the rapist is not punished due to 'solemnized marriage.'

Providing sex to husbands on demand underlines that wives must be subservient to their husbands. Moreover, our laws have a bizarre definition of rape which say that although sex with a girl below 18 will be considered rape even with her consent, the same with a 'wife' between 15 and 18 will not be considered so even if it nonconsensual. So, the Indian laws have substantiated rape as per the age of women and her married status. The biggest problem is that the victims usually do not report the incident or incidents and bear with the abuse silently due to the fear of being thrown out of the home. They do not also have recourse under current laws.

While talking about the criminalization of 'marital rape', the term is not defined under Indian laws. Various theories support the legality of marital rapes based on the 'normalcy' of 'coerced' sex in marriages. But can forced sex ever be considered normal? More than 100 countries have criminalized marital rape, but India is an exception and one of the 36 countries with no proper laws against marital rape.

The Centre believes that decriminalizing marital rape would 'destabilize the institution of marriage'. It also argues that the definition of marital rape is disputable.  The accusation may be based on some dubious assumption. What seems marital rape to someone may not appear so to another, but India has to go with what is recognized as marital rape all over the world.

It is important to consider that marital rape is unrecognized sexual abuse. Although consensual sexual activities in or outside wedlock must be treated with dignity, India needs to recognize that forced sex with one's wife is nothing but rape. Modern India must not normalize marital rape, as it is sexual abuse, without 'consent'. The normalization of marital rape shows the limitation of Indian laws. They need to be changed to provide relief to women suffering sexual abuse at the hands of their oversexed husbands.