Causes of India’s Failure to Criminalize Marital Rape
Here are the causes Why in India, Marital Rape is not a criminal offence:
- Customs and Culture: Most women are conditioned to believe that their husbands should dominate every aspect of their lives after marriage. Women have been taught by socio-cultural traditions, conventions, and values that it is their duty to always satiate their husband’s sexual desires.
- “WITH MARRIAGE COMES CONSENT” is a widely held belief: People believe that when two people get married, they enter into a contract because of the traditional prejudices and patriarchal that prevail in the culture. The contract effectively states that anything that occurs during the course of a marriage is consent and that the husband is free to have any relationship with his wife he chooses. The girl’s parents arrange the marriage without giving a thought to what the girl is thinking. Therefore, husbands feel their wife has no say when it comes to engaging in sexual activity as well and that consent does not matter when it is not taken into account in such a large notion as marriage.
- Family Pressure and Involvement: Once a couple is married, most families put a lot of pressure on them. The only thing they ask of them is to expand their family and carry on the family tradition. Even if a woman does not desire children, Indian households urge her to have them anyhow since they forbid her from exercising her own reproductive autonomy. This familial pressure prompts the husband to coerce his wife into having sex with him in order to conceive her. Because of this, in cases like these, the families are pleased with the continuation of their family line, even if it required raping the lady. They are not concerned with the woman’s well-being or mental health.
- Absence of Legislation: However, section 375 of the Indian Penal Code makes it clear that a husband engaging in sexual acts with his wife who is not under the age of 15 will not fall under the definition of rape, despite the fact that it is not expressly stated anywhere in any law that marital rape is a legal action under Indian laws.
- Financial Reliance: Another issue that should be addressed under this heading is a woman’s economic dependence on her husband and in-laws. Because historically, women were not expected to leave the home, even though this mindset is slowly changing, married women are powerless to defend themselves from such wrongdoing and are forced to put up with their husbands’ brutality.
Marital Rape in India: History, Laws, and Challenges
Marital Rape in India: Marital rape is the act of forcible sexual intercourse by a man with his wife without his wife’s consent. To assert their control and strength, some husbands frequently sexually abuse their wives. Since the dawn of time, marriages between people from various cultures have frequently been considered as a means of procreation when the need for permission may not always be present. As a result, many traditions and cultures do not view consent during sex as sexual violence.
Marital Rape directly influences a country’s women rights. Women’s Rights in India are evolving now as compared to the past. In this article, we will read about marital rape in India, Issues related to marital rape, its history, laws, causes etc.
Table of Content
- Issues Related to Marital Rape in India
- History of Marital Rape
- Laws on Marital Rape in India
- Causes of India’s Failure to Criminalize Marital Rape
- Global Perspective of Marital Rape
- Social Issues in Making Rape in Marriage a Crime
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