Must criminalise marital rape to protect women’s dignity, asserts Tharoor

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday introduced a Private Member’s Bill in the Lok Sabha seeking to amend the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) to remove the marital rape exception, calling it an “urgent necessity” to protect the bodily autonomy and dignity of married women.

Tharoor said, “The criminalisation of marital rape is an urgent necessity in India’s legal framework. I introduced my Private Member’s Bill today to amend the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and remove the marital rape exception, reaffirming that marriage cannot negate the woman’s right to grant or deny consent.”

“India must uphold its constitutional values and move from ‘no means no’ to ‘only yes means yes’. Every woman deserves the fundamental right to bodily autonomy and dignity within marriage, protections our legal system fails to provide. Marital rape is not about marriage, but about violence,” he added.

The proposed Amendment targets Section 63 of the BNS, 2023, which currently exempts a husband from prosecution for non-consensual sex with his wife, provided she is above 18 years of age.

According to the text tabled in Parliament, the absence of criminalisation has left married women “legally defenceless”, creating a distinction between the protection available to married and unmarried women, and reinforcing the misconception that marriage nullifies the requirement of consent.

Citing data from the National Family Health Survey-5, the statement notes that as many as 83% of women aged 18 to 49 who faced sexual violence named their current husband as the perpetrator, underscoring the widespread nature of sexual abuse within marriages.

The Bill also draws upon the 2013 Justice Verma Committee Report, which had strongly urged the removal of the marital rape exception, observing that it was incompatible with constitutional principles of equality and justice.

It further references India’s commitments under international treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which call for a broader legal definition of rape that recognises marital sexual violence.

The statement asserts that the constitutional guarantee under Article 21, interpreted to include dignity, privacy and bodily autonomy, is violated when married women are denied control over their own bodies.

It also points to Article 253, which empowers Parliament to legislate in accordance with international conventions, and Article 51, which obliges the State to respect international law.

“Marriage should be a partnership grounded in mutual respect, consent and equality,” the text states, adding that criminalising marital rape is essential to restoring women’s agency over their sexual rights. It stresses that assumptions based on caste, profession, clothing, personal choices or past sexual conduct must never be used to infer consent.