Marital Rape exposes our Society's True Colours

G GOWTHAM
Payal is a well-educated upper-middle-class woman who married a wealthy lawyer who assaulted her, raped her, and inserted items into her body while having intercourse with her. She attempted to divorce her husband but received little backing from her family, and she only got the courage to quit when he began physically beating her child. When she filed for divorce, her lawyer urged her not to mention the rape. Sadly, Payal's tale is far from unique.

In 2005-06, the National Family health Survey discovered that 94 percent of the 81,000 women polled stated their present or former spouses had sexually abused them. The 2015-16 National Family health Survey (NFHS) revealed no change, with data indicating that 99.1% of sexual abuse incidents go unregistered. According to the data, almost 99.1% of sexual assault cases go unreported, and the typical indian woman is 18 times more likely to be sexually abused by her spouse than by others. Despite growing facts, most individuals continue to ignore "marital rape."

The Verma Committee, which was formed in the aftermath of the Nirbhaya case to tighten sexual assault laws, concluded that the victim-offender relationship is unimportant and that the focus should be primarily on the existence of permission. The ongoing case before the delhi High court on constitutional grounds the statutory exception shields men from criminal charges in circumstances of forced non-consensual intercourse with their spouses, as well as the way men are suddenly "survivors," reveals our society's inherent patriarchy and misogyny. In the indian context, it also raises problems about the idea of "wedding."

"Marriage is for female the prevalent kind of occupation," Nobel Laureate Bertrand Russell stated in his book marriage and Morals (1929), "and the total amount of undesirable sex experienced by women is probably more in marriage than in prostitution." Consider the situation in indian Population, where the majority of women are illiterate and unskilled, and are married off in arranged marriages.


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