Marital rape refers to unwanted intercourse obtained through force or inability to consent between a husband and wife. It is considered a violent act of abuse by the husband against the wife. According to UN statistics, over 2/3 of married women in India between 15-49 have been beaten, raped, or forced to have sex by their husbands. The Indian Penal Code does not consider marital rape a crime, exempting sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife from the definition of rape. While domestic violence laws provide some civil remedies for marital rape, the act of non-consensual sex within marriage remains legal. There have been calls to reform laws and recognize marital rape as a criminal offense that violates women's rights to autonomy
Marital rape refers to unwanted intercourse obtained through force or inability to consent between a husband and wife. It is considered a violent act of abuse by the husband against the wife. According to UN statistics, over 2/3 of married women in India between 15-49 have been beaten, raped, or forced to have sex by their husbands. The Indian Penal Code does not consider marital rape a crime, exempting sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife from the definition of rape. While domestic violence laws provide some civil remedies for marital rape, the act of non-consensual sex within marriage remains legal. There have been calls to reform laws and recognize marital rape as a criminal offense that violates women's rights to autonomy
Marital rape refers to unwanted intercourse obtained through force or inability to consent between a husband and wife. It is considered a violent act of abuse by the husband against the wife. According to UN statistics, over 2/3 of married women in India between 15-49 have been beaten, raped, or forced to have sex by their husbands. The Indian Penal Code does not consider marital rape a crime, exempting sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife from the definition of rape. While domestic violence laws provide some civil remedies for marital rape, the act of non-consensual sex within marriage remains legal. There have been calls to reform laws and recognize marital rape as a criminal offense that violates women's rights to autonomy
Marital Rape refers to unwanted intercourse by a man with his wife obtained
by force, threat of force, or physical violence, or when she is unable to give
consent. It is a non-consensual act of violent perversion by a husband against the wife where she is physically and sexually abused. Indian Statistics : The UN Population Fund states that more than 2/3rds of married women in India, aged between 15 to 49 have been beaten, raped or forced to provide sex. In 2005, 6787 cases were recorded of women murdered by their husbands or their husbands families. 56% of Indian women believed occasional wife-beating to be justified. Origin of term Rape: Raptus, the generic term of rape was to imply violent theft, applied to both property and person. It was synonymous with abduction and a womans abduction or sexual molestation, was merely the theft of a woman against the consent of her guardian or those with legal power over her. The harm, ironically, was treated as a wrong against her father or husband, women being wholly owned subsidiaries. http://www.indialawjournal.com/volume2/issue_2/article_by_priyanka .html Origin of exemption of marital rape in western World: Laws of modern western liberal democracy are basically rooted in Christian teachings. In Christianity sex before marriage( fornication) and sex outside marriage(infidelity) is considered sin. But sex inside marriage is a duty hence marriage was treated as synonymous for license to have sex. Thus most of the old English and civil laws treated marriage as an institution where husband has full right over his wife including her sexuality. Thus The Indian Penal code which Borrowed heavily from Victorian Tradition Never considered marital rape as crime Wikipedia/ marital rape section Indian Laws : Marital Rape is not considered rape according to Indian Penal Code. Section 375, the provision of rape in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) mentioned as its exception clause- Sexual intercourse by man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15 years of age, is not rape. The only respite for women is that Domestic Violance act 2005 offers a civil remedy for marital rape and section 498A considers perverse sexual misconduct by husband as a crime.Also under this act woman can seek separation from her husband on account of marital rape
Thus indian laws equate rape with a ct of domestic violence . the
implication that after marriage one cannot refuse sex , equates institution of marriage to that of slavery or bonded labour. Article 2 of the Declaration of the Elimination of Violence against Women includes marital rape explicitly in the definition of violence against women. Every citizen in the country has a right of liberty ,life and privacy. Is entering into institution of marriage an agreement that one can be sexually abused all life???
Law Commission and Marital Rape
The Law Commission of India in its 42nd report put forward the necessity of excluding marital rape from the ambit of Section 375. In their words naturally the prosecutions for this offence are very rare. We think it would be desirable to take this offence altogether out of the ambit of section 375 and not call it rape even in technical sense. The punishment for this offence may also be provided in a separate Section. There was widespread opposition to the report of law commission by various female right group activist to include marital rape as criminal offence. The 172nd law commission report recommended that 2nd explanation in article 375 of IPC be deleted (Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape). Yet Govt refused to do anything on this as it believes criminalizing marital rape will threaten institution of marriage. Constitutional basis of criminalizing marital Rape Article 14 guarantees a fundamental right of equality before the law and equal protection of laws to every citizen of India. However it also requires that the equals within a society are not treated unequally and that the unequals of the society are not treated equally.
The two requisites of a valid classification were laid down by the
Supreme Court, as early as in 1952: a. The classification must be founded on an intelligible differentia which distinguishes those that are grouped together from others; and b. The differentia must have a rational relation to the object sought to be achieved by the legislation IPC article 375 has made a classification on the basis of marriage. While it protects unmarried women ,there is an assumption that married women have lost the right of consent after marriage. This differentia is against the principle laid down in constitution. Getting married does not mean the relinquishment of the right to consent or liberty. Married women also ought to be protected by state in their private sphere. Thus the differentia classification used by IPC based on marital basis is against the principle of article 14 as envisioned by the constitution Article 21 of the Indian Constitution enshrines in it the right to life and personal liberty. Post Meneka Gandhi vs Union Of India it has become the source of all forms of right aimed at protection of human life and liberty. The marital exemption to rape violates right to privacy, right to good health, right to bodily self determination which have been recognized as integral part of right to liberty. http://law.galgotiasuniversity.edu.in/pdf/issue2.pdf Verma Commission Verma commission which was set up in wake of 16 december rape incident in delhi gave the following observation on marital rape Consent in such cases will not be presumed in the event of an existing marital relationship between the complainant and the accused But The parliamentary committee on criminal amendment law 2013 gave its opinion that criminalizing marital rape will threaten the institution of marriage and hence the offence remain decriminalized
Thus the debate has to finally revolve around the definition of
marriage. Is marriage a civil union between two person to live their life together with oath of loyalty for each other OR marriage is an institution based on power control and dominance where woman is just a part of property of Man. Being married does not mean losing the right to privacy. The classification of victims on basis of marriage is totally against basic human rights. It reduces women to mercy of men infringing upon the sexual autonomy of women