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Marital Rape in India has become a common issue, affected by many legal and cultural factors. This includes marital rape not being viewed as a crime in India. Legally, it is not criminalized, and culturally, it is accepted as a norm of marriage. Recent cases have led to more media coverage and further understanding of the issue. As of now, statistics show that incidents of rape in India are steadily increasing. Nonetheless, reports of rape remain low.

Rape Statistics

As of 2013, an estimated 27,515,391 women aged fifteen to forty-nine years experienced sexual violence in India. Of these, 2,522,817 of the women affected were aged fifteen to nineteen ears old. This age group only accounts for 9% of the female population. However, this age group experiences 24% of the rape cases in India. There has been a steady increase in rape cases in India from 2001 to 2012. The increase in rape cases for women aged fourteen to fifty has increased 54% in that time. It is believed that rape reports are low due to marital rape being legal in India. It is estimated that only 1% of rapes are actually reported.

It is believed that women in India are 40% more likely to experience rape from their husband than by a stranger. It is also estimated that 10% of women in India experience sexual violence.

Indian Laws on Rape

The Indian Penal Code section 375 address the crime of rape. The law defines rape in several ways: against the woman's will or consent; obtaining her consent through threatening her or someone she cares for; making her believe the perpetrator is her legal husband; if she is unconscious or under the influence of any drugs or alcohol; or if she is under fourteen years of age. There is also an exception listed saying it's not rape if it is a man and his legal wife as long as she if over the age of fifteen.

Section 376 of the Penal Code outlines the punishments for rape, most of which are fines and/or jail time up to 10 years. The are several potential cases that are in their own section and indicate a harsher sentence including a policeman, or public servant taking advantage of their positions; a manager of a jail, hospital or institution raping a woman in their custody; someone who commits rape against a pregnant woman or a girl younger than 12 years of age; or someone that commits gang rape.

Recent Cases

In 2015, a woman came forward about having been raped and assaulted by her husband. She was hospitalized for her injuries, however, her husband was never prosecuted. The woman took the issue in the form of a petition to India's Supreme Court. Her petition was dismissed, the court saying that the law couldn't be changed on the basis of one person's experience.

In a high court in India in 2012, it was ruled that if a woman denied her husband sex, it was a form of abuse. The ruling was later upheld by India's Supreme Court as well, saying that being denied sex was a valid reason for divorce. It is seen this way because by denying her husband sex, she is also denying him happiness.

Societal and Cultural Values

Indian society is a strongly patriarchal one, with a large preference placed on sons over daughters, leading to many sex-selective abortions and female infanticide. Son preference does not only occur through those means, however. Families invest in their sons which leaves daughters without resources and often married off very young. 47% of girls will be married before they are 18, which means they will be less likely to finish an education and are at a higher risk of abuse and premature pregnancy. Women who survive this discrimination from birth face even more throughout their lives from violence to inadequate healthcare, bad diet, and more. Beyond the outright discrimination woman will face, is the underlying societal traditions that place husbands in charge of their wives and those wives often at the mercy of their husbands. 94% of rapes in India are committed by someone the victim knows and women are 40 times more likely to be assaulted by their husbands than by strangers^.