We need data to make marital rape a criminal offence : Maneka Gandhi

“We know it (marital rape) happens frequently,” Maneka told The Indian Express. “But women need to come and complain about this aspect of violence, and once there is enough data, the government could respond.”

She said at present the government does not have a case for introducing a separate law to criminalise marital rape since women do not use even existing laws on domestic violence to register complaints of rapes by husbands.

“Violence is violence. It has to be strictly dealt with,” she said. “We already have a section that covers domestic violence, and if that was used sufficiently for marital rape complaints, there would be grounds to move a new law… (However) police figures show it has not been used even once.”

The ministry came under fire last month over its reply in Parliament to a question on whether it plans to criminalise marital rape. The reply read, “It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due 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.”

The ministry’s amended reply is expected to state that the Standing Committee’s report on Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill has been prepared after considering the Law Commission’s ‘Review of Rape Laws’ (2000) as well as the Justice J S Verma Committee recommendations. While the Law Commission report was not in favour of making marital rape a criminal offence, as it held that doing so would be “excessive interference with the marital relationship”, the Justice Verma report made a strong case for criminalising marital rape.