Home Ministry refuses to consider marital rape as criminal

NEW DELHI: The Union Home Ministry has said that the concept of marital rape cannot be applied in India as marriage is treated as a sacrament or sacred as per mindset of the Indian society.

In a written reply to Parliament today, Minister of State for Home, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary has said there is no proposal to bring any amendment to the law for criminalizing marital rape. "It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context owing to various factors, e.g. level of education/illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat marriage as a sacrament, etc," Chaudhary said in a written reply.

DMK Member of Parliament Kanimozhi had asked the Home Ministry whether the government was considering an amendment bill to remove the exception of marital rape from the definition of rape after the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Woman has recommended to India to criminalise rape and if not, the reasons thereof.

"The Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Women and Child Development have reported that the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Woman has recommended to India inter alia to criminalise marital rape. The Law Commission of India, while making its 172nd Report on Review of Rape Laws did not recommend criminalization of marital rape by amending the exception to Section 375 of Indian Penal Code and hence currently there is no proposal to bring any amendment in this regard," the MoS replied.