From Sacred Vows To Legal Loopholes: The Battle To Criminalize Marital Rape

The basis of marriage, an institution that always was regarded as sacred and entrenched in our society, is intimacy, fidelity, and respect. But when it is used to excuse violence and cover up abuse as acceptable under the guise of marital privilege, this honourable position is warped. The concept of conjugal rights is frequently employed to minimise, deny, or normalise marital rape, which is an especially horrible example. Due to the presumption of irrevocable consent at marriage, husbands are frequently shielded from rape charges against their wives in many legal systems around the world, including India. This is a worrying exception. The exception to marital rape is a blatant violation of married women's fundamental human rights to bodily autonomy and dignity and reveals a pervasive patriarchal bias in legal and social norms. There is a lot of opposition to India's efforts to make marital rape a crime because lawmakers are reluctant to get involved in what they consider "private matters," and cultural and religious groups value marriage's inviolability over the welfare of the individual. The complex relationship between the idea of a sacred marriage and the legal loopholes that permit domestic abuse is examined critically in this essay. This research intends to tackle this injustice by examining the sociopolitical, constitutional, and historical foundations of the marital rape exception, considering the narratives of survivors, and identifying opportunities for meaningful legal change.