Marital rape remains a controversial topic in our country. A crime like this leaves a woman unempowered, powerless and weak. We must understand the psychological and external attributes inflicted upon a victim to understand the crime and its impact. According to a National Family and Health Survey in 2005, total lifetime prevalence of domestic violence was 33.5% and 8.5% for sexual violence among women aged 15–49, . The most important factor is the inability of a woman to move out and suffer in peace, One reason is not being financially independent, secondly social stigma that comes with it that often leaves the victim not take a stand for herself. But, If a law gets codified in this situation, I am sure 50 percent cases will decline. Influential people have been subject to Marital Rape too. In the book “My Feudal Lord” Tehmina Durrani has discussed how she was raped in a prison cell by her husband when she went to see her husband who was accused of a crime by the government in Pakistan. This provides the summarised notion of how Education, Wealth etc are sometimes not correlated to the factors that contribute to Rape in a marital relationship. Marital Rape can be defined as the sexual violence of a man over his wife. Here when consent becomes not needed factor, Something inside a woman breaks. She gets mentally drained that is not a very fruitful thing that we want and need. If we want a healthy space for the women in our country to live in, We must immediately work upon this and try to stop these things from happening.
MORE ABOUT MARITAL RAPE
Statistics only show what has been registered, But in my opinion, There are a lot of unheard voices suffering, going through the pain of this atrocity, Their voices unheard, The ground reality is that a whole lot of women suffer worldwide, often silenced upon the stigmatized society. Within 16 minutes or so, A woman is raped in India, Many of them are raped under a Marital Relationship. A woman often powerless, voiceless is silenced within the boundaries of her own house. The humongous number of cases reported and unreported both are of large numbers. People tend to put a sexual desire of a man that he expects from his wife under the cage of his wants, often ignoring the bodily autonomy that a woman possesses. The society at a larger extent is traditional in India, where women are expected to respect the boundaries,the society has put forward for them. Marriage in this case becomes a cage for a woman where she is unable to express herself vividly, With all the constraints of dos and don’ts, a woman becomes a puppet of the cruel world that we live in. In most societies, Largely educated as well, People are very attentive of controlling the woman, Sometimes, leading to the voices going unheard. Consent is seen as a non-essential and undermined factor in a marital sexual relationship. Things are slowly changing and women becoming vigilant and outspoken but what about the underprivileged, rural and poor backgrounds, The woman there are 10 times more backward and some interviews have shown how some uneducated village women often think it to be a job to satisfy their husband’s sexual needs and their consent is irrelevant, How they don’t even recognize how it is a grave crime and they suffer in silence, So is education, lack of awareness or the economic condition the factors leading to the rapidity of this crime, The answer can be a yes and also a no.
THE CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS
India is a hub of cultures, disciplines, traditions and values, Sometimes we try to not see the other facet of the coin by limiting our minds to the social constructs built around us. Sometimes around stigma, The other around cheap mentality, We try to tell our women to stay inside their limits, We try to cut their wings, Often marrying them off at a young age, Telling them to obey their husbands and in laws, Implying certain rules around women only, Thereby paying a little attention towards bringing up the men of our society. People never tend to educate the men what to do and what not to. Bringing significant change in the society is a large path. This should start from the point where children are raised, Boys should at a certain age be taught to respect a woman’s privacy and women to be aware of their rights. Our families often do not pay attention to the little things that, at a larger stage takes a big form. Men think women are their properties, They owe them, Women need men and other such stereotypes. Education in form of degrees is worthless if it is not preached in form of actions. A society in which everything is running smoothly is not very hard to build. We must be educated, vigilant, non discriminative, aware, empowered to slowly progress into a society where we save our women from such evil creatures who look upon women as objects and not people.
WHAT GOES INSIDE THE MIND OF THE ACCUSED?
The person who commits this crime is unwilling to understand the emotions of his spouse. The person is strengthened by the lack of laws in this context. The law makers argue that the making of laws in favour will contribute to a lot of fake cases against men. But the thing that is not getting recognized is the amount of mental agony, pain, powerlessness a woman faces when she is not able to do anything about the crime being committed against her. The person committing this crime uses this to his advantage and causes lifelong pain to his wife. In many cases the woman lacks the power to even decide how many children she wants to bear. The context of a woman’s power over her own body comes into question. The need of the hour is criminalizing Marital Rape and making stringent laws in this matter. Most of the cases of rapes go unreported when they are committed by known persons where the victim would not ordinarily make the complaint because of variety of reasons or some adverse consequences that she may suffer financially, reputation-wise etc. it is unfortunate that the state does not bother to examine what measures can be taken to control the rape by known persons. “Rape is an ancient crime which has received penal punishment in the old IPC of Macaulay, but this crime has escalated horrendously over the decades for the punishment remains static and has had no preventive impact on the community. There has been a sudden explosion of aggravated form of Rape on such a larger scale that Indian womanhood as a class has begun to feel a grave danger to their safety and dignity and their very right to life.” A husband can’t rape his wife is permitted in the eyes of law; it is a legal sexual intercourse where implication can be unwanted sex, sexual assault, violence for their mutual matrimonial consent whereby she agreed for all when she agreed for marriage. The law does not also understand that a marriage in which a woman lacks control is also in an indirect manner contributing to many other such factors as well, Like pushing forward a criminal to commit more grave injuries against his wife, Undermining the value of law in the eyes of general public. Making thousand laws for the upliftment of woman would not suffice if an immediate law for this regard is not made. Women will continue to remain unempowered, weak, powerless in certain societies.
WHAT GOES INSIDE THE VICTIM?
A victim through this crime is denied agency, treated harshly, given mental trauma, continued to be subject of physical assault. It is indeed saddening that a free country like India where every individual is entitled to a certain opinion, has entitlement, is treated as a person and granted individuality. But the victims of Marital Rape are exceptions, Through mistreatment and forceful sex implied over them, Women are denied the rights which should be a principal agent for them to live and sustain but sadly we ignore the agony and pain of these victims. Rape is seen as a heinous crime but why isn’t Marital Rape given the same aggression, The act of Rape when done becomes the subject of nation, of protests which is a required factor but why not for Marital Rape? The ingredients are same, The pain is same, So why shouldn’t the suffering of the assaulter be same? Should he be not prosecuted. It would be inhuman to avoid the mistreatments a woman faces under Marital Rape. It is obvious that a woman becomes traumatized for her whole life and it becomes hard for her to come out of this trap, Be it physical or mental and both. Why shouldn’t the assaulter face the same atrocity through prosecution? During Covid 19, many women have reported of domestic violence in form of sexual pressure and the physical assault, The government dismisses increase in these cases but the truth is that it is still prevalent. Most victims were married off at a young age incapable of understanding body, consent, sex and marriage. Some victims have admitted that they asked for help from their families and in laws but the help was denied. The society argues that a woman is a puppet and should adhere to the so called needs of the husband and turns deaf to the woman’s helplessness. The victims are often harassed for sexual favours, sometimes beaten and alleged for excuses, The women are told to leave the house or are beaten, In some cases the children are kept away from the mother which even weakens her existence.
WHAT DO THE PEOPLE THINK?
There are many ill minded people who think Marital Rape is a concept that is superficial. In rural societies the cases are more. People tend to not believe a woman when she tells what she is facing, Often neglected, Lack of support from the society gives the criminal more courage to keep on doing what he does. Lack of money, support, the fear of separation from the children make the woman keep mum. More factors are lack of education, and what will the society think. New brides who are not independent face even more aggression from the in laws, Falsely accusing the woman to be evil and home breakers if they protest. Woman are seen to be rebels if they go against the will of their husbands, This is a particular mindset the people of society carry forward. The starting point of all of it is when men are not questioned when they move around but women are when they even try to rebel against a crime. All of it because our society is not modernised.
CONCLUSION
Vandalizing other people’s body is a crime and should be treated like it. Rape should be treated as crime because it is a crime. Rape is a violation of a body of a woman. It should be treated like it. It is of no surprise that our legal system is full of loopholes and pending cases, A large population is another factor because of which even after working honestly our legal advocates fail to fulfil the needs of a large population like India. In a democratic nation, The most important power rested within us is the power to raise our voices for the good. Due to stigma, lack of finances, instability a lot of women are suffering the pain of Marital Rapes in India, We should be vigilant to the needs of our women, We must raise our voices for the poor women that are suffering, We must help them raise their voices, To not judge them, to help them fight off their rapist, Make them recover mentally and physically. We should protest and bring it to the government’s notice to criminalize Marital Rape as it may take grave consequences in the near future. Marital Rape should become a ground for divorce. Women should be given therapy for what they have faced and men who commit this crime should be put behind bars, Provisions be made, as simple as that. The ideology that a man can’t rape his own wife is non sensible, It should be not be focused upon. Rape is a serious thing that cannot be ignored even if it is done under four walls by a person’s own husband. The Marital Rape is only punishable when the victim is under 12-15 years of age but we seriously need to pay heed to the adults who suffer this evil. Consent is consent. Forceful sex is a criminal offence. Withholding justice and denying equal protection for preserving marriages can be an improper goal of law. Marriage is a pure thing founded upon the doctrine of love, trust and companionship, It should not be confused with the whole agency of a man over a woman. A man is inhumane if he forces himself over his wife without her will. A body is a temple that a woman owns and she is the sole guardian of it, No man can force himself upon a woman without that woman’s consent. Our government and our judicial system should pay attention to the large number of cases of Marital Rape that are taking place. There should be help given to women so that they become able to prosecute their husband if their husband is practicing immoral conduct or implying non-consensual sex that is Rape upon her wife. Rape related provisions should not be limited to them happening between strangers. A woman mentally suffers and gets emotionally drained when no necessary help is provided. Even after recognising so many cases of Marital Rape,
The government does not criminalize it, The modernisation context becomes irrelevant here because the first step in empowering our woman is to give them freedom, But in the 21st century we are stuck in penalizing punishments for certain crime, that too of a grave crime. Progress is a farther route right now. We can work as a whole to make our society cruelty free for the women if we come together.
India is a hub of cultures, disciplines, traditions and values, Sometimes we try to not see the other facet of the coin by limiting our minds to the social constructs built around us. Sometimes around stigma, The other around cheap mentality, We try to tell our women to stay inside their limits, We try to cut their wings, Often marrying them off at a young age, Telling them to obey their husbands and in laws, Implying certain rules around women only, Thereby paying little attention towards bringing up the men of our society.
In a democratic nation, The most important power rested within us is the power to raise our voices for the good. Due to stigma, lack of finances, instability a lot of women are suffering the pain of Marital Rapes in India, We should be vigilant to the needs of our women, We must raise our voices for the poor women that are suffering, We must help them raise their voices, To not judge them, to help them fight off their rapist, make them recover mentally and physically.