Marital Rape a Socio-Legal issue

INTRODUCTION 

The act of sexual intercourse with one's spouse without the spouse's permission is referred to as marital rape or spousal rape. The most essential element is the lack of consent. Marital rape is a type of domestic violence and sexual assault that occurs while two people are married. Although sexual intercourse within marriage was once considered a right of spouses(especially in Patriarchy by husband), many countries throughout the world today consider it rape.

We have to just put the veil away in front of us regarding the social construct in our society along with those powers in Lutyens' Delhi and the intellectuals have to understand that this law has to be framed for the whole Indian society. Before this Indian Parliament passed a lot of such progressive laws but what is the actual position of these laws should also be considered.

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SOCIAL STANDING:

 I will just point out such laws which are there in Indian society to make it gender-neutral and establish a healthy marriage along with the actual conditions regarding those laws.

Starting with the Hindu marriage act 1955: A common marriage law for Hindus, Buddist, Jain and Sikhs this defines marriage as a sanskara and gives a complete sense that once a person gets into this it's really kind of impossible for any step back in our social system as of now, our society believes divorce as a curse to one’s life. Divorce is a curse then one can think of the actual status of remarriage of a divorcee.  We have to think of the society that for this society we are going to introduce such a law. We are progressing in this but have not reached up to that standard.

Divorce or demand for divorce is a taboo, Jewish and catholic Christians even can’t think of divorce it's a matter of shame for them. 

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Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act- 2005 : (Daughters' right to property)The Hindu Succession Act, 1956, was amended to eliminate gender discriminating elements. A coparcener's daughter, like his son, becomes a coparcener in her own right at birth, according to the amendment. The girl will now have the same rights as a son in the coparcenary property (ancestral property of the Hindu undivided family). This change also repeals Section 23 of the Hindu Succession Act, which formerly prohibited a female heir from asking for the partition of a dwelling house that was wholly occupied by a joint family unless the male heirs consented to split their portions.

The actual condition of this can be taken from any of the family households even in a metropolitan city although I am expecting a better condition in a metropolis than that of any of the two and three-tier cities.

This is just a clear picture of our society I have just reflected on the actual condition here to make it clear that any law regarding Marital Rape will be implemented in this society so this has to be taken care of. I believe that before making any such step there is a need of making people aware of these things if not results of these will not be seen in the short run. 

For me, in a society like this, it's hard to accept any such law from Parliament because they have to validate their job every 5 years from that society only, so the last hope is judicial activism. 

(we have seen what parliament has done with the women's reservation bill)

So before considering any such law the actual condition of society should be considered and after the proposal of law, there must be a wave in our society to make every group aware of these things. Because these kinds of things only happen in a society which is where one gender dominates the other in the relationship. If it's not done it will lead to the rest of the laws prevailing in society which are just providing privileges to the intellectual class which should not be like that. 

LEGAL FRAME:

                                                                                       *Above is the excerpt of IPC section 375  *

 A report of the National Family Health Survey with a sample of 80000 to 125000 females in the survey out of which 93% of them have accepted that at any point of time they were the victim of marital rape.

The same report says that 99.1% of rapes remain unreported, and acquaintances do the majority of rapes.

Women have long been considered the property of their significant others or guardians under the patriarchal structure that controls Indian families. As a result, rape was viewed as both a robbery of a woman's property and a crime against a spouse or guardian. Our politicians have been encouraged by this belief system to ignore the crime of marital rape by offering it the shield of the husband's wedding right, so tacitly allowing that women are nothing more than a protest of her better half's sexual fulfilment, with no control over her sexuality. This decision established the females' right to equality and consistency. For this only Article 14 and 21 for women has been challenged to rule out the exception under section 375 of the Indian Penal Code 1860. 

All that matters is the matter of consent as per the law a girl of 18 and above doesn't give consent it's a Rape. As of now, a girl who becomes a wife loses her rights regarding the dignity of life and equality as of a girl who is unmarried.

Way further 

In India, plaintiffs (one who complained, whose rights were exploited) have to prove that the allegations against respondents are true and it is hard to have any such proof of such acts. Any marital rape without violence cannot be proved in court with that ease.

Along with that, there is a fair chance that this can be misused by anyone between then. 

Apart from social awakening, these two points should be considered while framing the law.