Human rights organizations, including the All India Democratic Women’s Association, have petitioned India’s supreme court to criminalize marital rape.
NEW DELHI: Recently, Campaigners are outraged that marital rape will not be criminalized under India’s new penal code, set to take effect on July 1. Human rights organizations, including the All India Democratic Women’s Association, have petitioned India’s supreme court to criminalize marital rape.
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The court has requested a Government response and has the authority to demand a legal amendment if it disagrees with the government’s stance that criminalizing marital rape would violate the “sanctity of marriage.”
Three new laws will replace the British colonial-era penal code, which dates back to the 1830s and was enacted in 1860. Home Minister Amit Shah promised comprehensive reforms last August, criticizing the current system’s Victorian-era moralities, especially regarding homosexuality (decriminalized in India in 2018) and marital rape. Shah argued that India needs laws free from imperialist influences that reflect modern realities and the altered status of women.
The new laws focus on crimes against women, though some critics argue the changes are superficial. For the first time, obtaining sex by promising marriage to a woman will be a crime, carrying a 10-year sentence.
The new laws also define consent. However, they specify that “sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his wife, the wife not being under 18 years of age, is not rape.”
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Gender scholar Ntasha Bhardwaj criticized this provision as outdated and contradictory to the constitution, which protects women against violence and grants equality. Bhardwaj suggested that the government might believe conservative voters are not ready to accept marital rape as a crime.
This social conservatism was also cited last year when the Ministry of Law and Justice opposed same-sex marriages, which the supreme court declined to legalize, leaving the issue to parliament.
Bhardwaj pointed out that other harmful traditional practices, like dowries and child marriage, have been criminalized despite cultural arguments. Several petitions challenge another provision of the new laws, which prescribes lighter sentences for men who rape separated wives compared to the mandatory minimum 10-year sentence for rape.
Shilpi Singh, director of the women’s rights group Bhoomika Vihar, emphasized the principle of “my body, my rights,” arguing that marriage does not grant a man automatic access to his wife’s body. Without new laws, women will continue to face sexual exploitation.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has frequently advocated for “women-led development,” positioning women as central to India’s economic growth. However, India ranks poorly in terms of economic participation and overall gender parity. Bhardwaj noted that the view of marriage allowing a man unlimited access to his wife’s body undermines women’s empowerment and contradicts the government’s rhetoric of “nari shakti,” or “woman power.”
