Marital Rape: A Crime Undefined in Indian Legal Scenario

Marital rape is one of the gruesome and a barbarous crime that has received limited attention. It exists as a form of control and dominance over women even in the 21st century. Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code,1860 defines Rape and Section 376 penalises the offence of Rape but the Act unfortunately fails to protect a married women from her rapist who apparently is her husband, by not having any legal provisions acknowledging marital rape as a crime. The consent of a wife is not required by her husband in case of her age being 15 years or above 15 years of age. It means, forced sexual intercourse of a husband is a legal right of a husband. Thus, marital rape also becomes violative of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution,1950. National Family Health Survey conducted among 124,385 women in 29 Indian states, found that 10% women reported that their husband had physically forced them to have sexual relationship. Another survey conducted across 7 Indian states, one-third of the men interviewed admitted to perpetrating some form of sexual violence on their wives. This failure of law has reiterated patriarchal nature of laws in India. This paper emphasises on negative impact of failure of law in India by not defining marital rape as a crime and its consequences.