Rajya Sabha: NCP demands criminalising of marital rape

New Delhi: NCP lawmaker Vandana Chavan on Monday raised the issue of marital rape in the Rajya Sabha saying it was high time the Government made a legislation to declare it as a criminal act.

Speaking on the issue during Zero Hour, Ms Chavan said, “On last Women’s Day, the welfare of the fairer sex was discussed at length about but now with hundreds of such cases reported during the lockdown, we need to bring in a legislation to prevent such violence against them.’’

“Even the Varma Commission constituted after the Nirbhaya rape case, also brought recommendation to criminalise the marital rape. India is among the 36 nations which does not have a legislation to prevent the incidents of marital rape”, she said, adding that more than 100 countries in the world have made marital rape an offence.

 Some other women members associated with the issue.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, while expressing concerns over the issue, said there should be a broad consensus among all to make a legislation.     

Shiv Sena Member Ms Priyanka Chaturvedi brought up the nine member Group Of Minister (GoM) report on how to “neutralise media”. “How can we discriminate between those news agencies who speak against the government and those who speak for? India has been slipping in the press freedom index,” she pointed out. (UNI)