This is the second part of the three-part series on ‘the need for a law against marital rape’, as a part of the Justicemakers’ Writer’s Training Program, run in partnership with Agami and Ashoka’s Law For All Initiative. The first and second parts can be found here and here.
Trigger warning: rape, sexual abuse
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“If the feminine issue is so absurd, is because the male’s arrogance made it a discussion,” said Simone de Beauvoir.
Toppling down the insecurities of men’s rights activists, let’s see how the marital rape debate can help Indian society heal.
India And The ‘Othered’ Sex
India as a country has always been full of diverse cultures and languages, we celebrate and create a rainbow when it comes to our harmony. But this gradient picture comes at a cost.
There lies hidden darkness in the corners, nearly receding to the other side of the ruler, enduring and advancing the aesthetics of the system. The frames are ricked, the edges are tormented, with loosened nuts, holding tightly, nearly failing, the society.
The privileged ones smile in the center, as long as it serves them well. The ‘othered’, however, are disregarded. This is the state of women in our country as the ‘othered’ sex.
Our opinions are not listened to, our pleas are disdained, indifferently and indefinitely. Marital rape stands as a living example of the same hegemony in Indian society when it comes to justice and equality for women.
However, the current debate on spousal rape proposes to become the inflection point in the history of gender equality discourse in India, stirring debates on matters that are deemed too convoluted to discuss amongst the general people.
The debate around marital rape can help the Indian society step into the shoes of Indian women.
The Cinema represents what the judiciary unsee
Marital rape discussions are often complexed with different arguments even though the stories are all around us. Some argue that rape inside a marriage is nearly impossible to prove while others lament how Indian society differs from that of western and therefore the litigation will have no effect.
Bollywood and other regional cinema that vastly affects and mirrors our society often present disputed and taboo’ed matters to the common man, in a very vivid and narrative style.
These visual stories elicit emotions of wanting change in the system from the average, ordinary man, innocently. Movies like “Lipstick Under My Burkha”, “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag”, “Parched”, and “AkaashVani”, make us understand the gruesome reality of rape inside marriages.
While many men argue how marital rape is less painful and therefore lacks the ‘qualification’ to be called rape, such movies show us how it is exactly the opposite, due to the loss of trust in the relationship built over years.
Such discourses of art make us wonder about what advocate Karuna Nundy vehemently asked in the court: “If you’re legally not allowed to sexually assault, slap, molest, or kill your wife in the bedroom, why are you allowed to rape her?”
Nonetheless, the lawmakers and governments—state or center—care too much about their vote bank to speak on women’s issues.
Reparations To The Oppressed
There lies an infinite amount of data on marital rape, the numericals are shocking, and the stories are heart-wrenching.
Every news channel in this country makes an equal effort to cover its share of the issue. In this effort, they find trauma stories recited by the victims themselves, but the court prefers to listen to Men on an issue that is related to the ‘other’ gender.
The question coherently knocks on the door, why lawmakers are unable to see the injustice done to the marital rape victims.
Historically, societies and systems have chosen reparations as the answer to mass conflicts when one group oppressed another perpetually. It is a cost that one group pays, in helping the other community make for the time, wealth, and freedom, lost due to the damage caused by the former group.
Globally, once oppressed minorities and communities are given liberties legally, such as reservations and subsidies, to uphold socially exploited factions.
Thus, the question stands still despite there being a humongous amount of data, what makes the lawmakers of this country lean in towards the absurd arguments of men, who view sex slavery as an imperative part of the Indian marriage structure.
To make people understand marital rape through policy, education, and awareness sets on the road to which the pathway is led by the criminalization of marital rape in the eyes of the Constitution.
The Politics of Silence
Indian politicians prefer not to speak on matters that create a dispute in their vote banks. And we become just names plopped down in a ballot box.
“Consent is one of the most underrated in our society,” said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a tweet. However, in 2013, the Congress party rejected the criminalisation of marital rape recommended by the JS Verma committee created in the aftermath of the Nirbhaya movement.
The central government, in 2017, excused marital rape laws as the nemesis of the Indian culture and institution of marriage, while in 2022 have asked for “more time” to take a stance on the issue.
In 2017, in a primetime debate with NDTV, one being accused of missing the opportunity, the congress spokesperson reasoned with the lack of numbers and “stiff opposition” that came from its allies and the Bharatiya Janata Party, at the time.
The Delhi Government had called the act a ‘crime of cruelty’ and argued the constitution already criminalizes marital rape under the women’s bodily integrity law.
For politicians as bottomless pots, there has to be a survey, numericals, and numbers showing which side of the scales weighs heavier with utmost clarity.
Correspondingly, the numbers on marital rape have a significate difference between the number of people being denied of justice in comparison to the number of people wanting the (in)justice. This difference is what makes politicians and influential voices forbid themselves to utter a word on marital rape law discussion.
The political voices who have mastery in influencing the crowd for the greater good—of themselves have an obligation to speak out when the masses are in conflict and the debate over marital rape criminalization seems tiring.
The Bebaak Collective 2.0
Marital rape is not the first time when lawmakers and politicians have been unkind to women’s justice. From the Mathura rape case to Ranjan Gogoi sexual accusation case, the Indian judicial system has failed women many times.
However, the women in India have repeatedly come strongly to gender equality upheavals. In 2017, during the movement against triple talaq, Muslim women from all over India came together to demonstrate their rights and won the legal battle.
Contrastingly, RIT Foundation’s director, Chitra Awasthi, who filed the very first petition against marital rape in 2015, trusts the judiciary in delivering justice to marital rape survivors.
“In the case of triple talaq, there was a very vast and a very vocal opposition to it, but when it comes to marital rape criminalization, the case is sub judice and nobody is denying the issue,” said Awasthi.
In 2022, when the marital rape debate seems to be unending. Today, when we’re approaching the same pictures, It leaves us and the law, both with a question. Does women’s voices from all across the country need to come together, and share a stage, calling for their rights to make those in power listen or the judiciary will suffice to women’s justice.