A Threat to Marriage

Recently, I saw a south Indian movie named "Mukhchitram", that start with the beginning of happy marriage life but gradually throw the light on the forceful or non-consensual sexual interaction by her husband. This process continues even in unwell and bad biological condition of that woman, legally this is called as Marital Rape.

This heinous act highlights the issue of dignity of women in a sacred bond and also reduces the sanctity of marriage that have a unique purpose or importance in various societies. As Parsons called marriage as inevitable social institution that serves various functions for the individual as well as society. However marital rape still a inherent part of marriage because of various reasons. Primarily it exist because of biological dominance of male, low social indices like literacy of females, patriarchal taboo of revealing the issues of sexual union and lack of legal backing to fight against this crime.

In India, there is an argumental discussion going on between the Supreme Court and the Government about the legislation of marital rape. Indian Government follows Hale's principle that argues for avoiding legalizing marital rape and also supported by various other developed nations.

Not only this, several provision in the new legal codes of India i.e. BNS also already include the terms like cruelty, domestic violence, dowry and also section-67 of BNS disallows separate couple(judicial seperation) to do non-consensual sexual intercourse.

Therefore marital rape seems to be a hidden cruelty and even more heinous than rape as here female has to cook for that criminal in the morning. But the issue is that the legalization of this concept is not that easy as experts indicate on several flaws in the implementation of the legal provisions related to it.

First is that the issue of proof of this crime as it often occurs in a closed room without any eye witness. It also exist in the socially approved sexual relation i.e. marriage. This makes it difficult to prove as explaining such allegations on husband in the court of law is not usual or trivial.

Second is the issue of gender bias nature of this crime as nobody believe in the sexual harassment of males by their wife. This deprives them of getting the justice under such statute and also violate their dignity or fundamental rights of living. This often originates from the societal structure of ignorance that develop these gender roles of emotionless man or expressive woman.

Third is the social mapping of the institutions like marriage that often compell the female to avoid such crimes. As Simon de beauvoir argued that women are not born they are made. The concept of patriarchal bargain often proliferate these type of hidden cruelties in the name of getting acceptance of social norms through sacred bonds like marriage.

Therefore this seems to be a very complex issue in societies like Indian society where marriage has a governing impact on life of individuals. However it indirectly impact the whole world as it is not the issue of marriage but consent or gender sensitivity.

Consequently, the whole human community should contribute in resolving such issues of marriage or biological dominance. It follows with the rising of social indices through value based education and global compaign of gender sensitivity like #me too compaign etc. This helps in saving the sanctity of inevitable institution of marriage and prevent it to become a hitting license as called by Strauss. This eventually maintain social stability and seemlessly direct the sexual energy of both the gender in a suitable manner.

Therefore, empathetic development in human mind and conscious or critical thinking often helps in resolution of any issue of any field.