MARTIAL RAPE

India will not make marital rape a crime because of cultural and
religious values and concept of marital rape, as understood
internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian.
Context due to various factors e.g. level of education/illiteracy,
poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of society to treat marriage as a sacrament societys belief that
marriage is a sacrament. Say union min.
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) in 2005-06 posed
questions to over 80,000 women between the ages of 15 and 49, on
sexual violence by husbands and other men Sensitive questions
such as did your husband ever physically force you to have sexual
intercourse with him even when you did not want to?
Data show that 8.5 per cent of the surveyed women (one in 12)
said they had experienced sexual violence in their lifetime. Almost
93 per cent sexually abused by their current or former husbands,
while only 1 per cent sexually abused by a stranger.
Reporting of sexual violence to the police, based on National Crime
Records Bureau statistics found that less than 1 per cent of the
incidents of sexual violence by husbands were reported to the
police.
Justice Verma Committee report of 2013 on sexual violence laws
which said that the exemption for marital rape stems from a long
out-dated notion of marriage which regarded wives as no more than
the property of their husbands and recommended the removal of
the marital rape exception.
Overwhelming evidence that marital rape is the most common form
of sexual violence in India.
However the Criminal Law Amendment passed by the UPA following
the report also avoided the marital rape question.
The Domestic Violence Act recognises sexual abuse in a marital
relationship but only offers civil remedies such as shelter homes,
medical facilities and monetary relief to victims of sexual violence
by husbands, legal clarification will go a long way towards
recognising and reducing the problem.
U.N. Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against
Women had recommended that India criminalise marital rape,
Indias Law Commission had not recommended this.

A warped defence

According to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, which

defines rape and consent, sexual intercourse or sexual acts by

a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15 years of age,
is not rape.
Section 498A specifies only mental and physical abuse under its
definition of cruelty by husbands and in-laws.