Can’t impose international marital rape concept on India: Government

Friday, March 11, 2016

Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi.

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday said the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be applied in the Indian context.

Can’t impose international marital rape concept on India: Government

TNN | Mar 11, 2016, 03.35 AM IST

Asked in Parliament on Thursday whether the central government had any plans to criminalize marital rape, Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi said in a written reply, “It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors like level of education/ illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament etc.”

I read and understood it as…..

Is this the dark age that India still lives’ in when a Union minister, that too a woman, would respond to a question which is documented forever. Internationally a word would have different meaning than what we understand in India.

Definition of rape: to seize and take away by force as defined by www.merriam-webster.com

In Hindi the word Balatkar also means alike.  An act performed with force.

So let me understand, Rape is not a Rape even if spouse / partner is forcing upon his or her partner because the victim is uneducated, illiterate. Minister implies that Rape, which is an act of violence, done violently or forcefully against the consent and will of victim cannot be judged by victim whether she is being raped, due to her lack of education they cannot identify at that very moment whether this is act of love or a rape.  What a shame. As per minister and her staff that would help her draft such written responses, one has to go to school and get formal education before any human being could understand what is happening to them. I fail to comprehend, how can any one read a statement aloud, and not realize that it does not sound right, even if someone is reading it for the first time ever. Should we not question the common sense of the reader, in this case a woman lawmaker.

So if victims are poor, they cannot decide what is rape, does the statement suggests in the poor section of our society  (and I am singling out woman to make  the argument  here), the man acts out of love and affection but just violently, that act tortures the wife but she must put it up with because she is poor and cannot seek protection, enforcement would say, since you are poor, we are not sure if you even understand this well, we are not sure if this is rape. Huh!

Myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, gives men of India that right, and law would question wife’s interpretation of Rape, I do not know what Myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs are being referred to by minister,  but in India, we expect our woman to put up with it. Shame! Who are these people, men and women, that write statements like this.

What does “mindset of the society” mean here,  I hope it does not mean that once you become a “wife” or domestic partner, you also give away your mind and become a servant with less or nil rights, a dumb ( speechless) human that can not speak out when consensual sex becomes Rape.  Is it because Indian women still hear the unsaid during their lifetime to treat the marriage as sacrosanct,  she is goaded to describe her marriage and occurrences with in marriage by any name  but atrocity and its synonyms.

Now this seems so true , could it be, because the woman Union minister makes this statement, not realizing that she might also has seen and heard in her entire lifetime that what you feel as being hurt is really not being hurt, it is OK. And that other  women lawmakers in parliament accept the statement without flinching, says all.

So in  Indian context due to various factors like level of education/ illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society, O woman, this is it, deal with it and live with this dichotomy”