WUNRN
October 5, 2009
By Lesley D. Biswas
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When Mili held her newborn baby girl in her arms she wept, not with joy but
with a deep sense of pain and disgust. The child reminded her of the intense
physical pain and emotional humiliation her body and soul had been subjected to
by her husband. Petite Mili had just delivered her first child when her husband
demanded to have another.
“I was not prepared to have a second child and when he told me
that he wanted to have a baby to prove to his friends who had challenged him
that he would not be a father again, I was terrified. Despite pleading and
reasoning he forced me and made me pregnant,” she says tearfully. Although Mili
holds this against her husband, it has never crossed her mind to legally
penalize him for his crime. “What he did was wrong, but sending him to jail for
it would be a bigger sin,” she reasons.
Regardless of culture, status
or religion, women across the world continue to show reluctance in pressing
charges against the rapist when the culprit is their spouse, despite the fact
that marital rape accounts for a quarter of all rape cases reported globally.
In
It has taken Indian lawmakers a very long time to recognize marital rape as a crime. And yet having a law in place that criminalizes this form of violence against women is not enough to address this largely underreported epidemic.
Considering that Indian society is laden with discriminatory social norms like a dowry system and female feticide, activists and women’s organizations fighting to strengthen women’s laws still believe that Indian women have to change themselves if they want to be treated with dignity.
Organizations like Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), which is committed to improving laws related to violence against women, feel that women need to be more assertive when it comes to protecting their rights. Debashis Banerjee, lawyer and coordinator of HRLN in Kolkata says, “Unless women speak up against sexual abuse, be it at their workplace, in pubic transport or within the comfort zone of their bedroom, having a law criminalizing rape is irrelevant.”
The first time Indian legislature recognized marital rape as an offense was in 2006 when the revised Domestic Violence Law was implemented and the Indian Penal Code broadened its stance on what amounts to spousal cruelty by including emotional, verbal and economic abuse of a woman. Section 376 (A) is the only clause that specifically deals with marital rape, but only with regard to judicially separated partners.
Neither the Indian Penal Code nor the National Commission for Women (NCW) have any mechanisms with which to lodge cases of marital rape. A wife has to file a complaint under marital discord and then if a husband forces his wife to submit to his sexual demands against her wishes, it does not amount to rape but is instead treated as domestic violence. The husband is tried under section 498-A, which deals with cruelty by a husband towards a married woman. Unlike in custody rape, where the word of a woman holds good as evidence against the rapist, wives do not get the same consideration.
S.N. Koley, Member Secretary of the West Bengal Commission for Women (WBCW), a state commission for women's rights, says that theirs has been a constant fight against this social evil.
“Indian women are discouraged to file complaints against marital rape. It has taken them time to recognize [it as a crime]. The WBCW remains vigilant and we take up complaints of marital rape which are reported by the media or lodged with the police - even if they don’t come straight to us,” says Koley.
Although women say marital rape seriously undermines their
confidence and self-esteem, even women like Mili prefer not to make a formal
complaint. Social conditioning has led
However, woman’s organizations feel that the situation is slowly improving.
Economically strong women who are empowered prevail in reporting abuse, but
their less empowered counterparts have a long way to go. Strongly needed is a
system to provide victims with medical attention, shelter and legal aid in case
of an emergency. NCW fills part of this void by taking complaints related to
domestic violence, harassment, dowry, torture, rape and cruelty by a husband,
assisting women in all aspects of legal aid. They also follow-up on serious
cases, examine and collect evidence, and make recommendations so that speedy
justice is rendered.
The Social Legal Aid Research and Training Center (SLARTC) is one of the country’s most vocal forces and provides legal aid to socioeconomically disadvantaged women. Its 200 or so lawyers work on women’s issues including marital and date rape cases. SLARTC’s executive director, Manabendra Mandal, feels that since women are now making the effort to fight marital rape, they need encouragement. He says that it’s important to create mechanisms that will encourage women to speak out against their abusive spouses.
“It takes a lot of courage on the part of an Indian woman to be able to speak about things as intimate and personal as marital rape,” says Mandal. “Especially if the woman is financially dependent on her husband, she needs assurance that her case will be funded and if she has to leave her marital home, an alternative shelter is available until the case is in court.”
Even after the legal battle is won, the trauma a survivor of
marital rape suffers is manifold, manifesting in lifelong psychological damages
like miscarriages, unwanted pregnancies and panic attacks that prevent many
from returning to a normal life. Laws criminalizing marital rape will only be
relevant if women recognize their role in protecting their own rights and
decide to fight for them.
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