The Delhi high court’s decision that sex before marriage amounts to rape, may have good intentions but it is contentious, to say the least. It is also a clear case of gender inequality since it is both patronising and patriarchal to women. Moreover, it also dilutes the concept of rape.
Sex between adults with mutual consent is a tricky area especially in a country like India, with our many social and familial boundary lines.
But it is also true that adults need to be allowed to make their mistakes —as long as they are legal. In this case, a man promised marriage but later backed out.
Meanwhile, the man and woman had had sex. At worst, the man can be accused of breaking a promise or giving false assurances.
Rape — forced intercourse on an unwilling woman — is not merely a sexual act. It is the crudest form of violence, an infringement of human rights and attempt to impose oneself on another.
It not only violates the body, but also has a debilitating effect on the mind and soul, leaving the victim shattered. It is a weapon to humiliate and subjugate.
What we have today is a very low conviction rate of rapists, for a variety of reasons and the court has only confused the matter further by equating pre-marital sex with rape.
Moral policing is a fine line and the court seems to have erred on the side of patriarchy. The decision was made with a view to help women who may be coerced into sex on the promise of marriage and further states that young girls had to be protected against being exploitation.
That is a worthy intention but the problem is that exploitation, assault and breach of trust — a promise of marriage not kept, for instance — are hardly the same things. We require young people to be protected from trafficking, from paedophiles, enforced prostitution and labour.
Meanwhile, the Chief Justice of India, KG Balakrishnan, has called for a ban on websites that circulate pornography and emphasised the need for enforcing cyber laws. Here again, the courts need to stay out of morality and concentrate on the law.
India is becoming, according to various reports, a hub for child pornographers. We need to upgrade our laws and policing to deal with this heinous crime before we suffer the way countries like Thailand have.
What we do not need is for the courts to regulate love affairs between people. Nor do we need them to trivialise serious crimes ostensibly to save women from themselves.
Comments