The argument that allowed marital rape of minors in the name of ‘sanctity of marriage’ has been emphatically rejected
The Supreme Court must be congratulated for its landmark ruling that criminalises men having non-consensual marital sex with girls as young as 15. This ruling is bound to deflate the pernicious argument that tradition is sacrosanct and must be upheld even when it heinously throttles the life and livelihoods of the voiceless and the most marginalised. The same was true when we battled Sati and the same is true now.
Unimaginably, subsequent Governments have opposed this socially transformative ruling with harrowing and hollow arguments like — child marriages were a reality in India and that “the
institution of marriage must be protected otherwise the children from such marriages will suffer.” This position highlights the fact that marital rape of minors in the garb of the ‘sanctity of marriage' was being allowed. This is truly unacceptable in a democratic country where the government of the day should be crusading against social ills that plague our society and not protecting them.
This landmark ruling comes as a respite to several girls who were forced into child marriages and have thus faced countless forms of violence and strangulating oppression relentlessly throughout their lives. There is enough evidence to show that the marital lives of children are surrounded by a noxious environment of humiliation, oppression and loneliness. The young child is forced to comprehend this as her destiny and she resigns to feelings of dire anxiety and extreme hopelessness. How long would this nation have tolerated this physiological and psychological scarring of its youngIJ
Even with all these obvious perils and in spite of it being made illegal, the heinous practice of child marriage continues to flourish under the patronage of social bigotry and the nexus it enjoys with the political class, which was palpable in the Government's ambiguous stand. Instead of regretting the fact that it had miserably failed in preventing child marriages, the Government stood in the court to slyly protect it.
This landmark ruling has adeptly exposed this unholy nexus and their evil intention of using tradition as a fig leaf to conceal a horrendous and oppressive practice, at the same time providing respite to millions and paving way for a modern India. The judgements like these that will strengthen the idea of India which continues to plummet down on the Human Development Index. The court has done a fantastic job and now we as citizens should resolve that this landmark judgement is implemented in every nook and corner of our country.
(The writer is a Indo-British Model & Entrepreneur.)