Abstract

India remains one of 36 countries that have not criminalized marital rape. Following an outline of the issue, we examine reasons that allow for the continuing non-recognition of the offense through an exception to the statute on rape in the Indian Penal Code. We do so through an intersecting analysis of the status of women in economic, socio-cultural and political domains. As India is a patriarchal society, women lack power and voice in the familial space. This leads to normalization of violence as well as non-consensual sex within marriage. The inconsistencies and misconceptions in judicial understanding of the issue are examined by scrutinizing landmark judgements, extreme cases, and, statements for and against criminalizing marital rape. We discuss the implications of the current non-recognition of marital rape and conclude by outlining how legal change may occur.

摘要

印度仍然是未将婚内强奸定为犯罪的 36 个国家之一。在概述该问题之后，我们研究了印度刑法典中强奸法规的例外情况导致继续不承认该罪行的原因。我们通过对妇女在经济、社会文化和政治领域的地位进行交叉分析来做到这一点。由于印度是一个父权社会，女性在家庭空间中缺乏权力和发言权。这导致婚姻内的暴力和非自愿性行为正常化。通过仔细审查具有里程碑意义的判决、极端案例以及支持和反对将婚内强奸定为刑事犯罪的声明，来审查司法界对该问题理解的不一致和误解。