An ill-thought response

It was extremely reckless of the government to toss the subject of marital rape away offhand without an effort to understand the changing nuances of human relationships in today’s world.

In Indian society marriage is held to be a sacrament and, according to the government, the idea of marital rape militates against the received wisdom of rape being considered only as a crime outside marriage. Using this argument to brush aside the question whether the government would consider bringing a bill to amend the IPC to remove the exception of marital rape from the definition of rape was, to say the least, too brusque a reaction from the minister of state for home.

The minister’s reply underlining government policy was too pedantic, and reflects the opinion held by the majority that a man could assert his conjugal rights in an Indian marriage in any situation. There is sufficient ground for an informed debate instead of concluding that the concept will not work in India merely because the country would like to think of itself as educationally backward and filled with age old customs. The mindset of Indian society has to change to understand that a woman has the freedom to say no to conjugal sex.