Sexual Autonomy of Women in India: Challenges and Way Forward

Sexual autonomy, central to the principles of bodily integrity and human dignity, remains a fiercely contested terrain in India. While it promises individuals, particularly women, the right to make independent decisions over their bodies, sexuality, and reproduction, entrenched patriarchal structures have long subjugated this autonomy to the demands of family honour, religious morality, and communal control. Legal reforms and judicial pronouncements have nominally advanced sexual and reproductive rights, yet deep-seated societal resistance continues to undermine these gains, subjecting autonomous women to social policing and stigma. This paper interrogates the historical trajectory of sexual autonomy from pre-Vedic times to the colonial period, critiques the judiciary’s often ambivalent role in either reinforcing or challenging patriarchal norms, and scrutinizes the contemporary legal and social exclusions faced by marginalized groups such as minor girls and women in sex work. The paper also shed lights marital rape which is seen as taboo topic and the approach of Courts in dealing it. It argues that the gap between constitutional ideals and lived realities reveals a systemic failure to realize sexual autonomy as an uncompromising right and a site of radical political resistance.