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The entire family system will be under great stress if marital rape is brought under the law, the government on Friday maintained even as around 700 cases pertaining to rape by live-in partners or separated husbands were filed in 2015.
Citing National Crime Records Bureau data, MoS Women and Child Development Krishna Raj on Friday said in Lok Sabha that cases related to rape by live-in partners or separated husbands in 2015 stand at around 700.
However, she reiterated the government’s stance against bringing marital rape under the law.
The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs presented its 167th Report on Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2012 on 1 March 2013.
Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi had last year stoked a controversy when she said in Parliament that there cannot be a law against marital rape because marriage is a "sacrament".
Gandhi has maintained that "a law on marital rape will make no difference because no one will complain".
The JS Verma committee set up in the aftermath of nationwide protests over 16 December gangrape had recommended that marital rape be criminalised.
The UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women also recommended that the Indian government criminalise it.
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