Marital Rape (Paper)
- Archana Pandey, Banasthali Vidyapith
- January 7, 2021
Content :
India is a country where there is a domination of males in the society. In Indian Culture, husbands are considered as a GOD to the wife. She must have to do what her husband is saying without saying any wrong words to him. It cannot be said that earlier women have no importance in the family instead of it they are treated as Goddess and every family member respect her. Meanwhile society has changed with the time gap not with the mindset but also the perspective towards women. Many a time’s women are considered as a machine whose only work is to give birth to the child, take care of the family and husband and be in the control of men. Although the rights of women are also specified by the constitution but the root cause is that these are not implemented at the ground level of the society. Women are getting exploited by many means like in the form of dowry, domestic violence, sexual abuse, girl child birth, bad omen to the family. One of this exploitation is “Marital Rape”.
The Rape is defined in the IPC under section 375 as an offence. Also in society it is also considered as a bad, even though somewhere there is a mentally that it is the fault of that girl but people are now considering men as guilty for the same. Marital Rape can be defined as an act of sexual intercourse where there is a lack of a spouse’s consent for the same. Consent is the basic element on which it is decided whether the cause of action is considered as an offence or a normal act between two or more persons. Marital rape is criminalized in the statute but the exception 2 of Section 375 of Indian Penal Code says that a sexual intercourse done by a man with his own wife (if she is not below 17) is not a rape. At the same time it is clarifying that if a man has a-sexual intercourse with his wife below the age of 15 or below will be held liable for rape irrespective of the fact that the act is done with or without the consent of the wife. Section 375 is a violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution which gives the Right to Equality before the law.
