 "Rape case")
A government-appointed committee had recommended criminalisation of marital rape in India, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday. Currently, the law makes it an offence only if the wife is below 15 years of age.
“Marriage is sacrosanct, but that does not give anyone the right to abuse the body and dignity of women. It is in this context that we asked that marital rape be criminalized,” Pam Rajput, the committee’s chairperson and founder director at the Centre for Women’s Studies at Panjab University told the newspaper.
The development comes a day after Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi had said that the Centre was considering criminalising marital rape.
In its report called ‘Status of Women in India’, the panel also plugged holes in the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act 2013 and criticised the government for inaction on criminalising marital rape.
“The Act is silent on the issue of marital rape, making it an offence only in cases where the wife is under 15 years of age. The Verma committee had, however, recommended that marital rape should be made an offence irrespective of the age of the wife. This shows the legislature’s failure to appreciate the growing menace of this crime wherein the victim has to suffer on a daily basis,” the report said.
While the 2013 Act has taken giant strides by expanding definition of rape, defining consent, among others, marital rape while a couple residing together is not punishable by law, the panel said. Currently, marital rape is exempted from the definition of rape under the Indian Penal Code as it states that “sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15 years of age, is not rape”.
Victims, for now, take recourse only to civil remedies which are given under the Protection of Woman from Domestic Violence Act 2005.
