Marital Rape Debate

Why marital rape must be a crime?

♤ Arguments against making it a crime:

o There is too little education and too many customs and beliefs in the Indian society

♤ Arguments in favour of making it a crime:

o Justice JS Verma committee, which recommended sweeping changes in the law relating to offences against women, called for marital rape to be made an offence.

♤ The present Indian law exempts non-consensual sex between a husband and wife, not being less than 15 years of age, from being charged with rape. However, by another provision it makes rape of a wife who is living separately a criminal offence.

♤ The age limit of 15 years above which marital rape is not an offence is inherently problematic, as normally sex with a girl up to the age of 18 is an offence regardless of consent.

♤ The exemption given to marital rape, as Justice Verma noted, “stems from a long out-dated notion of marriage which regarded wives as no more than the property of their husbands”. Marital rape ought to be a crime and not a concept.

♤ There will be objections such as a perceived threat to the integrity of the marital union and the possibility of misuse of the penal provisions. It is not really true that the private or domestic domain has always been outside the purview of law. The law against domestic violence already covers both physical and sexual abuse as grounds for the legal system to intervene.

♤ It is difficult to argue that a complaint of marital rape will ruin a marriage, while a complaint of domestic violence against a spouse will not. It has long been time to jettison the notion of ‘implied consent’ in marriage. The law must uphold the bodily autonomy of all women, irrespective of their marital status.