ANSWERING DMK MP Kanimozhi’s question on whether the Government of India planned to criminalise marital rape, the minister of state for home, Hirabhai Parathibhai Choudhary from Gujarat stated that “It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors eg, level of education/illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat marriage as a sacrament, etc. (Rajya Sabha Question 656, April 29, 2015). This logic implies that the institution of marriage should not be touched by any external forces and reinforces the argument that the State or political movements have no right to interfere in the ‘private’ domain. It is also this perspective against which women’s movements have been struggling for many decades. These movements have recognised that the democratisation of the family is an essential element of enabling women to achieve their rights and contribute to the country in a meaningful way as active and full citizens. To this end the enactment of the anti-dowry law in the 1970s and the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 reflect the success of those fighting for women’s rights and against a patriarchal society. By the same measure the attempts to dilute the anti-dowry law and exclude marital rape from criminal procedures constitutes a direct attack on the gains of the women’s movement. The marital rape controversy needs to be seen in this context.

MARITAL RAPE & COMPETING

NOTIONS OF THE FAMILY

The logic for the inclusion of marital rape in criminal law is provided in the report of the Justice Verma Committee that was set up after the Delhi Rape Case of December 2013. The committee aptly wrote:

The exemption for marital rape stems from a long out-dated notion of marriage which regarded wives as no more than the property of their husbands. According to the common law of coverture, a wife was deemed to have consented at the time of the marriage to have intercourse with her husband at his whim. Moreover, this consent could not be revoked. (Report of the Justice Verma Committee, p.113)

The Justice Varma Committee reached the conclusion that it was time that society recognised that the character of marriage had changed and that the modern marriage was a “partnership of equals”. Therefore it is essential that marital rape was included within the ambit of criminal law.

However, the government of India clearly does not share this view, and has an ancient and outdated notion of marriage to which the Sangh Parivar subscribes and which is reflected in the utterances of the minister in the parliament. This perspective is reflected in the philosophy behind the formation of the Rashtriya Sewika Samiti (women’s organisation of the RSS). The Sevika Samiti states that the ideal of every woman should be enlightened motherhood. According to this view, the family is the foundation of the nation and woman provides cohesion to the family by being an ideal mother, daughter and wife. In this view, the reproductive functions of the woman are considered ‘natural’ and inherent in the core principles of society. Hence it is the duty of the woman to serve the family and the nation as the principle harbinger of moral and social cohesion through the function of being the chief care givers. And since they are meant to be the harbingers of social cohesion, it is obvious that their purity and honour is of utmost importance. In contrast, men are seen as the chief protectors and the providers of the family. The Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, explicitly holds that men and women have “different functions”. These different functions have been outlined by the Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat when he said in 2013 that “a husband and a wife are ‘bound by a social contract’ where the wife has to take care of the household chores and the husband's duty is to earn for the house and protect his wife”. A year later, Narendra Modi outlined the seven pillars in his “rainbow vision” within which women and tradition occupy an important space. According to him, ‘tradition’ is epitomised in the family, and the honour of the family is epitomised within the woman. It is therefore not surprising that women have been made targets of communal violence by Hindu nationalists in and after 2002.  Hence we are witnessing a conflict between a modern idea of the family and the traditional notion of the family. Within this conflict, the Modi government is clearly backing the socially conservative idea of the family that forms the foundation of Hindutva’s attack on women’s rights.

HINDUTVA, WOMEN &

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The Hindutva perspective on women is clearly reflected in the manner in which BJP ruled states have dealt with the question of women’s rights and domestic violence. It is particularly well known that the Madhya Pradesh government has undertaken drives to check the virginity of women before conducting community marriages. Further the position of women, particularly in Gujarat is seen from the fact that its child sex ratio declined from 921 in 2001 to 918 in 2011, a figure that is much lower than the All India average of 2011. This is also seen in Madhya Pradesh where the sex ratio improved from 920 to 930 in the same period but continued to be below the All India average of 943. The abysmal social position of women under Sangh Parivar led governments is seen in the following:

The slow social development process in these states is reflective of the growing inequities within the states on the basis of individual social indicators as shown in the table below:

State Rankings on Individual Indicators of Social Development

Source: India Social Development Report, 2012, p.290

The table above shows that the gap between the male and female social development is the highest in education and economic deprivation in Gujarat. As is seen Gujarat ranks 13 as far as the male education is concerned and Chhattisgarh is ranked 14 in the same parameters. But in female education Gujarat is 5 places lower at 18 whereas Chhattisgarh is 4 places lower indicating a growing inequality between men and women in education.

More significantly, Gujarat shows the same or a greater level of inequity as far as economic deprivation is concerned. As far as women are concerned it is placed at number 15 in economic deprivation, but in the case of male poverty or economic deprivation it is placed 6 places higher at number 9. This indicates that women are far worse off than men in terms of economic entitlements. This difference does not exist much in the case of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. What is more stark is the difference between the rankings in health and education and economic deprivation. Chhattisgarh may rank higher in terms of wage rates, employment and other economic indicators, but it lags far behind in terms of education and health. Madhya Pradesh is placed very low on the scale on all the indicators.

The iniquitous and bad position of the women is also reflected in the data on domestic violence within these states:

Growth of Crimes by Husband and Relatives, 2010-13

Source: National Crime Records Bureau, Data Portal

The table above shows that Gujarat, the home state of Hirabhai Parathibhai Choudhary,  minister of state for home, has an abysmal record for treating domestic violence cases. While the growth rate of cruelty by husbands and relatives has gone up substantially in the other two states also, conviction rates have not kept pace with this growth. In fact the rate of decline of conviction rates is far higher than the all India rate of decline in conviction rates between 2010-13. Clearly the social conservatism pervading patriarchal political establishment has conditioned the work of law enforcement in these states.

Hence, we see that there is a direct co-relation between the conservative social perspective of the Sangh Parivar and the slow implementation of laws concerning crimes against women. The forces perpetrating these crimes have only got more emboldened with the successive comments of the BJP MP’s ministers and chief ministers. This seems to be part of a careful strategy to reinforce a right wing patriarchal system by reversing the gains made by the democratic women’s movement in the last seven decades and more. Hence there is an urgent need for democratic women’s organisations to unite in their defence of these gains and also in order to combat the ongoing social counter revolution which is being led by the Sangh Parivar.