Abstract

When two persons get married, they are meant to live life with dignity, health, interpersonal understanding, love, freedom, respect and comfort. All these are the essentials one aims for in a married life. In a country like India, we can see that there is certain kind of male dominance in the society. Due to do this prevalent male dominance, the spousal relationship of men and women is affected. People are of the opinion that, women are property of men and they hold complete control and supervision on them (women). This thinking is also accompanied with male chauvinism. Now, if we closely look at the purposive essentials of married life, (discussed above) and match it with the male dominance, then can we say that married women are living a healthy and happy married life? Men, treating women as their property, end up doing exploitation of women in numerous ways. This exploitation can be of mental harassment nature, sexual harassment nature and also exploitation relating to freedom, respect in the family and all around in the society. Now, people may say that, yes! Domestic violence is a kind of exploitation of women, not giving enough freedom, being disrespectful towards them and torturing them all these are ways mental exploitation or mental harassment. But how sexual harassment is possible in married life? When a woman legally married to a man, has sexual intercourse with her own husband, how can this be dealt as sexual harassment? How a sexual intercourse between a legally married couple lead to Rape? Is the consent not implied in sexual intercourse between a married couple? All these questions highlight the point of concern and aim behind writing this research paper. The paper aims to throw a light on the serious issue that directly impacts the women of our country i.e., what actually marital rape is, the definition and importance of consent in marital intercourse, why marital rapes being heinous offences are still not criminalized and what norms and laws can be implemented in order to protect women against marital rape. We will also have a look on certain petitions, debates and key judgements to get a clear picture of the present scenario and find ways to get rid of it. We are aware about rapes being serious and prevalent form of violence against women but we also need to understand that Marital rape is also a global and traumatizing problem affecting millions of women round the world. In the countries where marital rapes are not criminalized, there marital rapes are frequently underestimated because the concept of extremely challenging passive permission or consent, supports the legitimate and societal implications of sex in marriage. Looking deep into the definition of consent and elaborative view of marital rape, this paper tries to present all the necessary aspects one should must be aware of.

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