Marital Rape: Let’s take a moment to talk about the ‘Rape’ behind closed doors!
I had a neighbour called Raju Bhaiya. He was 37, jobless, alcoholic, partially bald, lecherous and a nuisance to the neighbourhood. No wonder Raju Bhaiya’s parents were worried. So one fine day, somebody gave his parents an amazing idea to bring his life back on track and voila! The next thing we see is Raju Bhaiya riding a ghodi and getting married to a pretty, qualified and soft-spoken girl, someone Raju Bhaiya did not deserve in 7 births. Today, life has changed for the better for Raju Bhaiya and the whole neighbourhood. Today, Raju Bhaiya has a source of income. He never leches at other girls. He is much more respected in society. Do you know why? Because Raju Bhaiya now has his own PRIVATE SEX DOLL! Today, he abuses, beats, and RAPES his own wife until all his pent-up frustration has been vented and starts his day fresh as a transformed member of society. And guess what! The neighbourhood couldn’t be more thankful. Raju Bhaiya is no more a threat to society! Problem solved!
The motto of the Indian Judiciary says यतो धर्मस्ततो जयः which means, “whence law (dharma) thence victory”. According to it everyone is equal and has the right to get justice. But after reading this extract from an article I doubt what does “everyone” stands for in our judiciary’s definition. We live in a country where marrying your love or by your own will is considered one of the greatest sins even maybe greater than raping someone while taking help of the license of being “ legally married”.
Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.
-Sec 375 of IPC
Marital Rape cannot be criminalised in India as marriages are sacred in this country.
-Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs
The Law Commission of India did not recommend criminalization of marital rape.
-Indian Government
I, the very unimportant little noiseless voice in this very noisy country, say that there is such a thing as marital rape. Marital rape is a fact and not some imagination or a mere concept. And, this same voice asks you, the lawmakers: Is the readiness of the society that important for a just law to come into existence? Why don’t we think that the law can transform the society, the way we perceive relationships, the way we see things? And the disturbing truth is that most of the women sufferers cover their bearings under the shroud of silence, and even those who muster some courage to at least file a complaint are mummed by the society norms which consider all this normal and the “right” of the husband! And even after bearing all this and going against the society if a woman comes up and files a report, then out much hailed Judiciary system turns all her hopes down because she isn’t a part of “everyone”!
On the contrary, there are innumerous voices getting suppressed behind those closed doors!! still waiting to get a law that may grant their sufferings justice.
BY: Ananya Pandit