{"id":34543,"date":"2018-10-31T11:45:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T06:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34543"},"modified":"2018-10-31T11:45:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T06:15:11","slug":"gone-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/gone-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Gone girl:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/gone-girl-supreme-court-child-marriage-4895630\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gone girl<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SC verdict on child marriage makes a break with cultural norms. Now, back it with policy to restore childhoods.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The recent Supreme Court verdict provides short term relief to the female victims of early marriage. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the verdict?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The verdict says that a man who has sex with a wife less than 18 years can be charged of rape. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Section 375 vs the Constitution<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Exception 2 to Section 375 (which defines rape) of the IPC (as amended by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013), as violative of Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Article 14 in the Constitution of India<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Equality before law<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Article 15 in the Constitution of India<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them<\/span><\/li>\n<li>No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Article 21 in the Constitution of India<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNo person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to a procedure established by law.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Article 21 can only be claimed when a person is deprived of his \u201clife\u201d or \u201cpersonal liberty\u201d by the \u201cState\u201d as defined in Article 12.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Article 21 secures two rights:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right to life<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right to personal liberty<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Child Marriage: in the Indian context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, the decline in child marriage is hardly impressive. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For, census data shows the continued prevalence of child marriage. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, in states as different as Bengal and Rajasthan, marriage of girls as young as 14 is far from rare.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The conflict:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court\u2019s verdict has achieved<\/span><b> two potential breaks <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the steady flow of cultural norms. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Firstly, by stating that marital sex with a child bride will constitute rape, the court has <\/span><b>dissociated matrimony from reproduction<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secondly, the verdict seeks to establish an extra benefit for girls in the <\/span><b>general framework of laws that define child rights<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Reason for child marriage in India: <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Poverty and marriage expenses<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> such as dowry may lead a family to marry off their daughter at a young age to reduce these costs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Poor educational opportunities for girls<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, especially in rural areas increase the vulnerability of a girl child to be married off early.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the leading causes of early marriage is the <\/span><b>over-emphasized fertility rate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Societies such as India\u2019s,<\/span><b> specific roles are assigned to women traditionally<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and such societies tend to facilitate these through practices like early marriage which reinforce prescribed gender roles.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is marital rape? <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marital rape or spousal rape is the act of sexual intercourse with one\u2019s spouse without the consent of the spouse.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a form of domestic violence and sexual abuse.. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are<\/span><b> several questions that remain unanswered <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by those demanding a new law to deal specifically with marital rape.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> As to what constitutes marital rape and what would constitute marital non-rape needs to be defined precisely before a view on its criminalization is taken. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the way ahead? <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indian society<\/span><b> needs to upgrade itself with more concrete educational schemes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for women in particular. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The society also <\/span><b>needs to change its patriarchal outlook <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for women and their marraige parameters. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The issue of child marriage by large <\/span><b>still remains open as the court refrained from dealing with the issue of marital rape of a woman aged above 18<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The SC verdict on marital rape focused solitarily on married women below the age of 18.Thus a <\/span><b>large part of marital rape law is still open<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government authorities need to ensure that <\/span><b>child marriage is abolished at all cost<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gone girl:\u00a0 SC verdict on child marriage makes a break with cultural norms. Now, back it with policy to restore childhoods. Context: The recent Supreme Court verdict provides short term relief to the female victims of early marriage. What is the verdict? The verdict says that a man who has sex with a wife less&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/gone-girl\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Gone girl:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704826757},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}