On September 30, the Supreme Court of India was hearing the plea of an unmarried woman who wanted to abort her child beyond 20-24 weeks of pregnancy. Not only did the bench of the apex court say that every woman in India has equal rights to the safe and legal termination of pregnancy, but also added, “Rape includes marital rape.”
It said that if a woman conceives after being subjected to sexual violence from her husband, she is entitled to terminate her pregnancy. According to the 2017 amendment of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, victims of rape have the right to seek a safe abortion. The SC cleared that the term ‘rape’ would not exclude ‘marital rape’.
Though marital rape is still not a crime in India, its acknowledgement by the SC gave hope for a better future for women in the country. The domestic Violence Act of 2005 recognises sexual harassment in marriages and live-in relationships, but the punishment is civil.
Despite the statement by the bench at the SC, here is a look at where India stands today on marital rape.
Twitter Reactions After SC’s Statement
As soon as the decision of the bench made headlines, #MaritalRape started trending on Twitter. A user wrote the statement and questioned, “So what is marriage for? Is it just to pay alimony to the wife after the divorce? Who is making such laws? Do men have no rights?
Supreme Court today gave a order where wife can do abortion if she said that the sex done with his husband was marital rape .
— Paap 2.O (@paapseeparody) September 29, 2022
So what is marriage for ? Is it just to pay alimony to wife after divorce ?
Who are making such laws🤡 did men have no rights ? #maritalrape
Aditya Singh wrote, “So now, husbands will have to have more than just verbal invitations from their wives before touching?”
So now, the husbands will have to have more than just verbal invitation from their wives before any touching?
— Aditya Singh (@adisposts) September 29, 2022
🙋🏻♀️ Let's cuddle.
🤷🏻♂️ Sign the affidavit first. Consent in a video. What if your mood changes anytime in the rest of your life?#SupremeCourtOfIndia#MaritalRapepic.twitter.com/9fyTxY8dK3
A user said that feminists would now shout that all men are rapists, and women demand equal rights.
Feminists talking about #MaritalRapepic.twitter.com/MSEONGC02M
— 𝕂𝕂 (@Try2StopME) September 30, 2022
83% Of Perpetrators Of Sexual Violence Among Married Women Are Husbands
The National Family Health Survey (2019-2021) stated that among married women in the age group of 18-49, who have ever experienced sexual violence, 83% reported that perpetrators were their husbands.
Almost 9% of those women said they suffered sexual violence at the hands of their former husbands.
Image Courtesy: NFHS 2019-2021
The chart above talks about married women, who have ever or in the past 12 months have been victims of sexual violence. About 4.6% of women have reported that their husbands had forced sex when they refused.
Around 2.4% of the perpetrators forced their wives to perform sexual acts they never wanted to, and 3.8% threatened their spouses to perform an act of intercourse that they did not want to.
Image Courtesy: NFHS 2019-2021
Alcohol sometimes played a role in this. While the report said that among perpetrators of spousal physical sexual violence, 23% of them never drank alcohol, while 71% often drank.
Image Courtesy: NFHS 2019-2021
Among women who ever suffered spousal violence, only 9.5% of women who have faced sexual violence have sought help.
Why Women Suffer In Silence
While speaking to us, Saranya S. Hegde, President of the Mahila Dakshata Samiti, Bengaluru, said that husbands often treat women as an object and think they can do anything with their wives because our marital laws and society supports them.
She added, “The helpless and dependent suffer in silence.”
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Kamlesh Premi, Counsellor at Home at the Centre for Social Research, said that the judicial process of filing a complaint for marital rape is too lengthy. “In the end, even after an investment of at least five years and drained financial resources, the court would either ask her to adjust or maybe advise her to divorce the husband and provide maintenance.”
Dr Veena Shrivastav, a retired gynaecologist in Lucknow, said, “Marriages in India have a concept of ‘implied consent’ to sex. Therefore, either happily or sadly, women comply with it.”
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Hearing For Marital Rape Pending In Supreme Court
On September 16, the Supreme Court asked the government to share a response to appeals seeking the criminalisation of marital rape in India. The appeal came after a bench of the Delhi High Court delivered a split decision on whether or not to prosecute husbands for non-consensual sex with their wives.
Under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, there is an exception for marital rape. While Justice Rajeev Shakdher called the exception ‘unconstitutional’, Justice C. Hari Shankar said the exception was based on ‘intelligible differentia’.
While the SC’s statement for the inclusion of marital rape under rape is a ray of hope for many women, we still wait for the government to declare it a criminal offence under the IPC.
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