Hyderabad: A recent study in the city revealed that 65 per cent of married men in the age group of 35 to 55 years think that forced intimacy is their right and it is okay if their wives do not give consent.
The study also stated that about 60 per cent of women had been forced by their husbands into intercourse and a majority of them shared incidents of marital rape. Experts say that the recent Delhi High Court ruling that forced marital sex was not rape, was a failure of the law to protect women who face forced sex on a regular basis.
“More than 42 per cent stated that forceful attitude of a partner can lead to unintended pregnancies, induced abortions and gynaecological problems. Such forceful attitude can also lead to suicide in a few. The 2013 analysis of the same study found that married women who had been forced by their husbands, were twice likely to have an abortion,” said Purnima Nagaraja, consultant psychologist of Dhriti Enabling Psychological Wellness.
A corporate HR in her early 30s, who has been visiting a psychologist for months now, said that she had fallen in love with a man when she was doing her MBA and had married him soon after, even before she was very comfortable. “I was not like everybody else. Indian women are conservative when it comes to sex. I didn’t know much about it and I had discussed with my husband that I wanted some time till we know each other well enough. But because I refused, he started hitting me and rapes me every day,” she said, adding that his family was also pressurising her to have a baby.
WHO Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health in 10 developing countries in 2005 had indicated that 35 per cent of women worldwide had experienced either intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence at least once and more than 30 per cent in a relationship had experienced some form of physical or sexual violence by their partner.
“Eight out of 10 women who come to me have these issues. Some come with bruises and scars on their faces and arms. It’s unfortunate that marital rape is not an offence in India,” said Geeta B, a freelance psychologist.
Commissioner of police Anurag Sharma added that not many such cases got reported. As per IPC Section 375, intercourse by a man is not rape, the wife not being under 15.
Meanwhile, completely in favour of the verdict were a few men’s support groups from the city, who said that this Section (375 of IPC) if not imposed, can lead to misuse of the law by women.
“Petty issues of asking something specific in dinner have flared up and ruined everything for me. My wife would not even sit down and talk to me and divorce was the only way out. We just had two years of married life,” said a member from the Save Indian Family, a support group.
Within hours of the judgement, the social media was abuzz with tweets from people with different opinions. While some sympathised with the women, who are victims of marital rape, some felt that the Supreme Court must step in and establish the concept of marital rape clearly.
Family court lawyers said that in several cases, refusal to have intercourse can be a ground for divorce. “There is no scope for discussion on marital rape as there can never be a proof of whether an intercourse was with or without consent,” said lawyer C.V.L Narsimha.
Whereas Uma Maheshwar, another family court lawyer, said, “Most problems start from here. It is important to clearly establish the modalities of the law.”
