Marital rape debate: Govt’s family health survey spotlights consent issue
India Today
According to the recently released National Family Health Survey 5 (2019-2021) report, 18 per cent of women in India are not able to say no to their husbands if they do not want to engage in sexual intercourse with them.
The Delhi High Court pronounced its much-awaited verdict on criminalisation of marital rape on Wednesday. The bench was not able to make up its mind on whether a sexual act performed by a man on his wife without consent should be considered a crime or not and delivered a split verdict.
The issue, which remains unresolved, will now be taken up in the Supreme Court.
The matter is centred on Exception 2 to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, which states that any sexual act performed by a man on his own wife is not rape, even if done against her consent, as long as the wife is not a minor.
According to the recently released National Family Health Survey 5 (2019-2021) report, 18 per cent of women in India are not able to say no to their husbands if they do not want to engage in sexual intercourse with them.
The survey highlights that for nearly one-fifth of India's married women, their consent in sexual relations with their husbands is compromised.
Here are some other findings of the NFHS-5 survey that are relevant to the marital rape debate:
The latest NFHS-5 survey was conducted in two phases — Phase-I from June 2019 to January 2020 covering 17 states and 5 union territories and Phase-II from January 2020 to April 2021 covering 11 states and 3 union territories.
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