NEW DELHI, India — One in every four Indians is
illiterate, and one out of every five lives below the poverty line. Many
in the country are deeply religious.
These qualities turn ominous when they make it easier to get away with raping a woman in her own home.
While laws on domestic violence and rape exist in
India, rape in the domestic sphere remains unacknowledged. India is one
of the few countries in the world that have yet to criminalize marital
rape, despite studies
and statistics that show a terrifyingly high incidence. Earlier this
month, the explanation for this oversight came from an unexpected
source.
“The concept of marital rape, as understood
internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context,” said
Maneka Gandhi, the minister for women and child development, in
response to a question posed to her in Parliament, “due to the level of
illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious
beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament,
etc.”
Gandhi could not be reached this week to clarify what she meant.
But she was repeating, word for word, the Indian
home minister’s answer to a similar question last April. The government
officials seem to be saying that too many Indians aren’t ready to
believe rape can happen within a marriage. Critics consider that idea
laughable.
“The illiteracy and poverty arguments are foolish.
Doctors face violence, judges face violence, lawyers face violence,”
said Monika Joshi, a legal consultant with Maitri, an NGO that works
with vulnerable women including victims of domestic violence. “[Former
chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] R. K.
Pachauri sexually harassed an employee, isn’t he educated?”
Mallarika Sinha Roy, a professor of women’s studies
at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, pointed out that given the high
frequency of marital rape found by multiple studies in India, it is
unlikely that the crime is limited by economic status.
“Illiteracy and poverty being cited as
rationalization [to not criminalize marital rape] will not hold to
reason, because many people belonging to those sections are more
vulnerable to rape,” said Roy. “Poverty has nothing to do with people’s
level of understanding of sexual violence, particularly women who
actually every day show incredible substance and acumen in surviving.”
And if the government’s citation of India’s social
customs and values refers to a higher moral standard that would somehow
prevent marital rape, social workers find that the reverse is more
likely. According to Joshi, who is also a social worker, customs that
teach both boys and girls that consent isn’t relevant in a marriage have
in fact forced women to accept marital rape as a norm.
“Women never use the word ‘rape’ when they talk
about their husbands. They say ‘he was forceful and I didn’t like it,
but I just lay there because I did not want to be beaten,’” said Joshi.
The social values that expect women to provide sex
after marriage also expect them to abstain from sex before. India’s
controversial and recently outlawed “two-finger test”
was, before 2014, an accepted test of a rape victim’s habituation to
sex. Some have interpreted the government’s citation of “values” as a
reference to the difficulty of proving rape against a married, sexually
active woman.
Indira Jaising, a prominent human rights lawyer at
the Indian Supreme Court, pointed out that these moral standards on
premarital sex cannot apply under judicial consideration.
“Courts are accustomed to dealing with rape of
sexually active women in the case of a stranger perpetrating the rape,
so why should there be a problem with married women?” she said.
While sex is considered a spouse’s right in India
— denying it is grounds for divorce — it’s not one that trumps a woman’s
rights over her own body, Jaising said. The ministry’s reference to
“religious beliefs” making marital rape impossible therefore rings
hollow.
“The constitution does not visualize a situation
where two rights conflict, there is always a way of giving full effect
to both rights. There can be no conflict between the right to practice
religion and the right to bodily autonomy for a woman, they must
coexist. No religion sanctions rape, be it of your own wife.”
Yet acknowledging marital rape is considered a
threat to the very concept of marriage, considered a “sacrament” in
India. Joshi, however, insists that criminalizing marital rape will only
strengthen the institution.
“When we teach people that respect and equality is
important, that marriage is trust, it will strengthen the institution of
marriage, not break it,” she said.
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