CRIMINALIZATION OF MARITAL RAPE – AN URGENT NEED FOR A CHANGE IN LAWS

Abstract

Marriage is the union of two adults mutually consenting to cohabit with each other and share their interests both socially and legally. In India marriage is a sacred institution bringing together just not two individuals but two families. Marriage is not celebration for a day but its celebration for life. The institution of marriage brings along various rights such as, the right to cohabit, the right to produce an offspring, the right to enter in sexual relation. But many a times these right are misused. Rape in a matrimony is sheer violation of women’s personal rights. In cases of rape in marriages the situation is unimaginable as the women has to forcefully cohabit with her rapist without uttering a word and has to go through the torture almost every day. This paper focuses on whether the factor of consent of a women in a wedlock is important for sexual intercourse? Whether the man can rather use force on the women just because she is his wife and he has a right over her? We must understand that in India there are plethora of laws protecting the right of a women but in a society which is patriarchal in nature since the time immemorial can a ‘wife’ say ‘no’ to her husband who wants to have a sexual intercourse and is her consent really regarded equally important? India is fast growing country and one of the strongest in the third world countries. Countries like United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and may other countries have criminalised the offense of marital rape, then why is it difficult for India to give women the right they she deserves? The need for criminalization of marital rape is an urgent need of the hour and India needs to save its women from the regular depredation of mental, physical emotional health.