Wife Rape: Hidden crime, serious consequences and possible solutions

• In Event: Responding to Gender Based Violence: Challenges, Solutions, and Lessons Learned

Abstract

The most culturally and legally accepted type of violence against women, rape in marriage/wife rape, is largely unacknowledged as a significant social issue in India. The Government of India realizes the dangers of early marriages but has not taken any concrete steps to criminalize marital rape. The article has contended that marital rape should be legally recognized and classified as a criminal offence in Indian law. The ‘crimes against women and their victims’ data as outlined in the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and husband subjecting his wife to cruelty, under Section 498A, IPC, 1860 indicated concerning surge over last eight years. The female victims of domestic violence may be especially susceptible to being raped by their husbands, making it possible that rape in marriage must be the most common kind of sexual violence. Legally defined marital rape will reveal the extent of this crime and apprise its effects. The possibility of using restorative justice as transformative approach for mitigating the effects of this pervasive issue.

Author

• Vibha Hetu, Northumbria University