Marital Rape: A Crime, Not Criminalized

If murder destroys body of an individual, Rape degrades sole of the helpless female. As defined by Lowie, “Marriage is relatively a permanent bond between permissible mates.” Marriage, often known as a wedlock is a relationship of trust and that of affection. A husband exercising sexual superiority by getting it on demand and through any possible way, is not a part of the institution of marriage. On emotional and religious grounds, the role of a wife has traditionally been understood as submissive and docile and that of a homemaker. Sexual intercourse is treated as a ‘Taboo’ and this often gives rise to highly disputed issue called “Marital Rape” or “Spousal rape”. The offence of Rape is one of the most gruesome and barbarous crimes perpetrated against women. Marital Rape, though not defined as a crime, in India is one of the most debatable and divergent issue. Women are moreover treated as an object of pleasure and a property of the husband since time immemorial. They have been victims of crimes like rape, sodomy, sexual harassment, female infanticide etc. In recent times, where the general public is fighting for equal rights for both men and women, the rate of crime against women is proliferating. Many a times people misunderstand that an institution of marriage where two souls tie a wedding knot to be companions for lifetime, gives the husband a liscence or the right to have sex with his wife forcefully or in other words, marriage takes away the right of a lady to refuse to have sex with her husband. This paper basically points out the flaw in Exception 2 of Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 and is the wife an object or property of the husband ? Is she not given any right to protect herself form the lust of her husband and prevalence of the problem of marital rape and the factors for why men rape their own wives in order to ensure gender justice.