OPINION: India Honors the Sanctity of Marriage, but Our Laws Ignore the Abuse It Enables
Last week, the Chhattisgarh High Court of India acquitted a man who raped his wife by unnatural means, leading to her death (Pandey, 2025). She managed to record a statement - a ‘dying declaration’ - where she stated that her husband had forcefully assaulted her using unnatural methods. Her autopsy confirmed that the cause of her death was indeed unnatural sexual assault. The details of the crime are too gruesome to describe here, but they ultimately didn’t matter to the Chhattisgarh High Court bench. The rapist was acquitted because, under Indian law, marital rape is not recognized. In fact, it’s legitimized.
"Provided that a woman who does not physically resist the act of penetration shall not, for that reason alone, be regarded as consenting to the sexual activity. Exception 2. Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape."
The sheer audacity of men using power and control, especially in India’s so-called honorable courts is astounding. As ‘Justice’ Narendra Kumar Vyas declared in the Chhattisgarh case:
“If the age of the wife is not below 15 years, then any sexual intercourse or sexual act by the husband with his wife cannot be termed as rape under the circumstances. As such, the absence of consent of the wife for unnatural acts loses its importance. Therefore, this Court is of the considered opinion that the offense under Section 376 and 377 of the IPC against the appellant is not made out,” the Court emphasized.
If our (dis)honorable judges show no regard for humanity, why wouldn’t such judgments be used as precedents for future crimes?
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Back in 2021, I was conducting a year-long research project on the status of women’s economic, social, and political empowerment in rural India, focusing on women and girls from underserved communities across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and West Bengal. Throughout my research, I had the privilege of conducting numerous focus group discussions and key informant interviews across the country, where I met some of the most resilient women I’ve ever encountered.
Marital rape was a key focus of my research, given the overwhelming number of women I spoke to who were child brides or had given birth as children themselves - many of whom were still child brides when I spoke to them. Unsurprisingly, marital rape was all too common. Many women described how, if their husbands were 'in the mood', their consent didn’t matter; they were forced into sexual intercourse whether they were asleep, in the middle of chores, or simply unwilling. This abuse often intensified, becoming more violent if domestic violence was already part of their lives. Last time I checked, there is a word for ‘forced sexual intercourse’.
Another significant finding from my research was the chronic spinal pain suffered by many women who had given birth as children. This pattern was evident among numerous former child brides, expected to ‘grow up’ far too quickly, enduring the brutal realities of ‘marriage’.
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While marital rape remains a contentious issue in legal debates over punishment for perpetrators, we are certainly not short of other forms of violence against women - female foeticide, infanticide, honor killings, ‘love jihad’, caste violence, dowry murders - you name it. As I was drafting this piece, I came across yet another horrific case (The Hindu, 2025) : a woman in Uttar Pradesh allegedly had an HIV-positive syringe forcibly injected into her because she couldn’t meet an additional dowry demand of 10 lakh rupees and an SUV. Now, she will live a life that slowly destroys her spirit.
A similar case comes to mind, that of ten-year-old Phulmoni Dasi (Queen-Empress v. Hurree Mohun Mythee, 1890), who, much like the Chhattisgarh victim, died from rape-related injuries at the hands of her ‘husband’ - a 30-year-old man - on the night of their wedding. Yet again, the perpetrator was acquitted of rape because he was married, even though the autopsy confirmed her death was due to rape. Legal provisions at the time did not recognize marital rape. This was in 1890. While her death sparked a reevaluation of the age of consent in India, marital rape laws remain non-existent.
Some may call these gaps ‘legal loopholes.’ But these are not legal loopholes - they are societal loopholes. Deliberate mechanisms designed to perpetuate the oppression of women and girls, ensuring misconduct, exploitation, torture, and murder persist without consequence.
Our political leaders repeatedly call for the ‘domestication’ of girls and women because men rape us. But what about the domestication of men?
Why not lock men indoors so we can live safe lives?
India remains an unsafe place for women everywhere because we continue to live in a society that tolerates and excuses violence against us at every level - from the home to the courtroom. We cannot walk a single step outside our homes without the unsettling feeling of being stared at, objectified, or harassed.
It’s not just the physical violence or legal loopholes that trap us; it’s the culture of silence and complicity that allows these atrocities to persist. The laws, the courts, and even our leaders fail to protect us, treating us as less than equal citizens.
Until we dismantle the systems that perpetuate patriarchy and misogyny, and until we demand real accountability for those who harm us, women in India will never know the safety and respect we deserve.
References:
Pandey, G. (2025, February 15). Marital rape: India anger as judge frees man accused of raping wife who then died. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm29drxjlxmo
Press Trust of India. (2025, February 16). Woman alleges in-laws injected HIV-infected syringe over dowry demands, probe on. The Hindu.https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/uttar-pradesh/woman-alleges-in-laws-injected-hiv-infected-syringe-over-dowry-demands-probe-on/article69226821.ece
Queen-Empress v. Hurree Mohun Mythee, (1890).
About the author:
Vrushali Kadam is a queer, gender justice researcher and youth engagement advocate in UN advocacy spaces. She is a co-creator at Feminist Manch, a grassroots feminist movement in India, and has co-founded Community Care Collective (CCC), a queer, BIPOC, activist-led grassroots group which focuses on the intersections of community care, radical love, and mental health in social justice movements.
Vrushali also leads Advocacy and Programs at Politics4Her, Asia, and is a board member at ChalkBack, a global movement using chalk art to raise awareness about street sexual harassment. She has worked in the rural development space in India, particularly at the intersection of gender justice in tribal and Dalit communities. By day, she crafts communication strategies for national NGOs in India; around the clock, her work intersects with social justice.
