Why marital ***** is still legal in India?

The existing mentality among Indian men is that when they get married, they can indulge in any kind of ***** without the consent of the partner—and that forced ***** with the wife is normal.

Many countries have marital ***** illegal. Sadly, India isn’t on that list. While majority of the population agrees that it should be illegalized, there are also few voices who think otherwise.

India Home Affairs Minister said that marital ***** in India cannot be made a criminal offence because of various factors, including high illiteracy level, poverty, extreme religious beliefs, myriad social customs and values, and overall mindset of the society regarding the sanctity of marriage. This is the stand of BJP. Congress is no better though.

In 2012, Congress-led government rejected the proposal to criminalize marital ***** arguing that it could potentially destroy the institution of marriage.

So why marital ***** is still legal in India is because of the reluctance of the ruling parties – and the oppositions – to save their vote banks.

Fortunately, the progressive voices have outnumbered the regressive ones. We have more and more people coming out to support the issue, fighting to have stronger laws to prevent marital *****. We have civil societies and NGOs, fighting on different levels, to make this heinous act a criminal offence with strict punishments. Hopefully in the coming days, we will have strong laws to prevent rapes in marriages.