Women Don’t Use Marital Rape Law in 99.9% Cases: Maneka Gandhi

The minister said the govt can’t intervene in the ‘sensitive’ and ‘complicated’ issue of marital rape.

Women and Child Welfare Minister Maneka Gandhi. (Photo: Reuters)

Most women tend to use the law against marital rape only after the marriage is over and the laws are not being used by women in 99.9 percent of the cases, said Union minister for women and child development, Maneka Gandhi.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Gandhi said that the the government cannot intervene in the ‘sensitive’ and ‘complicated’ issue of marital rape and that the buck stops with how women would use the law in a ‘healthy, abusive or a floundering’ marriage.

She asserted this while releasing the draft of the revised national policy for women which marks a shift from a welfare based-strategy to a more rights-based approach and includes issues such as reproductive rights and single-women concerns among others.

The minister’s earlier stance on the issue had created a controversy when, in reply to a question in Parliament, she had said:

It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors.