In this era of modernisation, India is found to be struggling with end number of cases where a women is subject
to rape by her husband which is termed as Marital Rape, i.e. the rape committed by the person to whom the
victim is married. Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code defines the term 'rape'. This section has been subject to
recent amendments, but still after such reform, marital rape continues not to be a crime in India. However it
can be termed as a prosecutable domestic violence under sec 498(A) of the Indian Penal code and can be
considered under Protection of Women from Domestic Violence. The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 has been
interpreted in the manner that a wife is duty-bound to have sex with her husband, and divorces have been
granted to husbands whose wives refuse to have sex on grounds of “mental cruelty”. Hence, as observed no
action can be taken on marital law until further ramifications on the said Act been taken into consideration. The
Criminalisation of the
Marital Rape was also
among the suggestions
of
the
Ve r m a
Committee, a threemember
panel
appointed to suggest
amendments to India’s
sexual assault laws. The
government rejected
this proposed change,
leaving it out of the
draft bill it then
presented
to
Parliament. Why? The
reason given by one of
the reports depicted that if marital rape is considered as a crime under the provisions of law then it would be
contrary to the beliefs of the whole concept of family harmony. But this simply outrages the rights of the woman
who has been the victim of rape by her own husband which need to be pondered upon by the Legislative by
enacting such provisions thereby enabling the victims their right.
There have been plethora of cases wherein wives are brutally harassed, one of the cases was filed many years
after the marriage, where the victim (Rashmi) believed that frequent vaginal bleeding after intercourse was a
normal phenomenon. Married at the age of 17, her husband would assault her six to seven times a day. At the
age of 19, when she conceived her first daughter, she was forced to have intercourse till the eighth month of her
pregnancy. However, things became worst when barely 15 days after she had a C-section surgery, her husband
assaulted her so badly that it led to the rupture of her stitches. She wanted to raise her voice against her
husband but was mocked by her mother. "This is normal. Husbands don't rape you. They are allowed to
do all that," she was told. Today Rashmi is 27 years old with 2 daughters, fighting a case under
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