India’s Supreme Court has quashed a legal clause that permits men to have sex with their underage wives, ruling that sex with a child is always rape.
The legal age of consent and marriage in India is 18 but marital rape is not considered an offence, as the clause acts like a loophole that has historically allowed perpetrators of rape to escape punishment.
The clause, which was part of India’s law on rape, said intercourse between a man and his wife was permissible as long as she was over 15 years of age. Thankfully, the court has now ruled that the clause is “discriminatory, capricious, and arbitrary”, and “violates the bodily integrity of the girl child”.
Girls under 18 would now be able to charge their husbands with rape, as long as they complained within one year of being forced to have sexual relations.
Prior to this ruling, the government has said that criminalising marital rape could “destabilise” marriages and could be used by wives as “an easy tool for harassing the husbands”.
This has been a crucial problem for years, as the girls involved would often need to drop out of school to focus on their domestic responsibilities, or suffering health problems from giving birth at a young age.
Girls are often seen as an economic burden, particularly in poor, rural areas, and many parents marry off their children in the hope of improving their financial security.
On top of that, there are cases where parents force young girls to marry their rapists.. which has also been an issue in Malaysia.
Although the verdict has been hailed by women’s rights activists, correspondents say the order will be difficult to enforce due to the high rates of child marriages. (India currently ranks #10 for underage marriages).
Will this finally be the end of non-consensual child marriages? It’s hard to tell, as there are still steps to be taken in criminalising marital rape — but we sincerely hope so. For the sake of innocent, young girls around the world.
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