Will The Indian Perspective of Marital Rape Change?

In our country, marriage is considered a legal agreement between two individuals to spend their whole life together, willingly or unwillingly. Indian marriage system, usually a family drama, is highly influenced by our orthodox society. Even in the modern era, love marriages are still not accepted with all heart. A woman and a man who love each other can’t get married but two complete strangers are allowed to marry and moreover compelled to fall in love with each other. A girl who loses her virginity before marriage is considered as a promiscuous woman, but if loses virginity after marriage with her husband whom she doesn’t even know, is accepted by our society. Truly, we live in a hypocritical world.

Under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, "a girl getting raped by an unknown man without her consent is considered as a criminal offense and the criminal gets a severe punishment”. However, we don't consider a girl getting raped by her husband a criminal offense? Why isn’t there any law for Marital Rape? Well, we can presume that either our society doesn’t consider it as an offense or they are just ignorant about the very existence of ‘marital rape’.

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Well, rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out without that person’s consent. If any person indulges in sexual intercourse with you without your consent, it is considered to be rape. But how does this not apply when it comes to marital rape? Any time a husband forces himself on his partner to engage in sexual intercourse without her consent, the act should be categorized as marital rape. Everyone has the right to say NO.

Women don't give up their sexual rights as soon as they get married. In fact, there are times when women can't even head up to file a complaint against their partners because of their family support and most of the times, keeping in mind the 'Log Kya Kahenge' concept that runs our entire nation. Its been long and even after so much progression, women haven't managed to understand that the perception of our society shouldn't really matter as they are the same people who may not even stand for their own daughters or sisters.

Are women really born to suffer this much? Why are women always told to adjust and suffer to save a relationship? Why can’t someone stand with her and tell her to do what is actually right?

During the amendment in criminal law, the official reason for not making any changes in the law regarding marital rape was that it would 'weaken the institution of marriage'. So, well, even the law expects women to continue trying in order to make her marriage work even if her husband is a rapist and a wilful brute. Rape is Rape, adding the word ‘Marital’ in front of it doesn’t undermine the severity of the crime. The misconception that sexual violations can’t take place in a marriage are extremely misconstrued and must be revised.

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