Marital rape victim loses faith in country’s law

Hyderabad: When 23-year-old Neha (name changed) app-roached her parents with a complaint that her husband was beating her up when she refused to have sex, a week after giving birth to a baby girl, she was told by her family to comply to his wishes and save the marriage and family honour.

Neha suffered silently for almost six months. “When it went beyond tolerance, I tried for legal recourse, but found none. I then applied for a mutual consent divorce and got separated from my husband,” said Neha.

“Divorce has proven to be a civil death, but it is still better than being forced and abused everyday,” she added. Neha decided to stay away from her parents as well and is now living with her daughter. She didn’t file for compensation, as she didn’t want the case to take more time.

With no legal recourse for victims of marital rape, filing a case under the Domestic Violence Act or filing for a divorce seems to be the only way out for women. As per IPC Section 375, “Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15 years of age, is not rape”.

Activists from the city rue that in many cases the victim doesn't get compensated despite being injured as marital rape is not a crime in India. In most cases of domestic violence, the woman is also a victim of marital rape, said experts working on the issue.

“In one such case, the husband forced his wife to have sex during pregnancy and the woman had to undergo a caesarian. We had to slap a domestic violence case first and when the woman wanted to get divorced, we helped her. She is one of the rare cases where we were able to get compensation,” said activist Ms Jameela Nishat.

Though the Law Commission had recommended in 2000 that forced intercourse in marriage should be considered a form of violence, nothing has changed for women.