India today is one of 36 countries in the world that hasn’t criminalised marital rape. Today in 21st century it has become the need of the hour that we unlearn certain things one such concept is marital rape. Across the globe there are many legal systems including India which do not recognise marital rape as a crime. Here it becomes utmost important to recognise the value of consent in sexual relationship irrespective of the fact that women is married or unmarried. Our Indian society is still stuck on the ancient believe system where daughters and wife in a family were considered the property of the father or her husband later on when the rape cases increased outside their respective homes the protection of a women was made the liability of her husband when married and her father if the girl is unmarried but again here she was considered as a property and not a human being who is suffering violence. And finally it was in 1860 with the enactment of the Indian Penal code that rape in India was made punishable offence under section 375 where sexual intercourse with a woman without her will, her consent, by coercion, by misrepresentation or fraud or at time when she was intoxicated is considered rape.
The concept of marital rape was highlighted when an exception to the said section was raised which states that a sexual intercourse by a man on his wife not being under the age of fifteen years is not a rape which reflects the misogyny in our society. Marital rape clearly violates the constitutional rights of a women which include right to equality before law, right to life and right to personal liberty.
Our government somehow is still believing that an effective law against marital rape will adversely affect institution of marriage and also questions are being raised as to the misuse of the law. Our government here is clearly supporting the patriarchal setup which has been prevalent in the society for ages now.
It has become necessary to take some necessary steps to stop such harassment against women and also to recognise her value as an individual.