Just days after Minister of Women and Child welfare Maneka Gandhi submitted in parliament that the government wouldn’t criminalise “marital rape”, a top UN official said that the issue is one of consent, not culture, suggesting that India would be in contravention of the Sustainable Development Goals it has adopted if it did not amend the law accordingly.
“Each country needs to look at its laws in the light of what the SDGs say, and whether these laws take women forward or take them back,” said UNDP chief Helen Clark in an exclusive interview to The Hindu when asked about Ms. Gandhi’s statement. “I don’t have anything to say on any particular individual, but it is clear to me that the critical issue is one of consent,” she added.
Ms. Clark made a significant pitch for all countries around the world that had not made domestic abuse and marital rape criminal offences to do so at the earliest. “Because when it is domestic violence, the police and everyone else takes it as no business of theirs, something within the home otherwise. An assault on women at home is never something “within the family”. It is a crime. It has to be recognized and dealt with,” Ms. Clark, who was in Delhi to attend the IMF “Advancing Asia” conference told The Hindu .
The words of the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme are particularly significant not just because the UNDP is monitoring the implementation of the SDGs by 2030, but because Ms. Clark is widely considered to be preparing to run for UN Secretary General later this year. When asked by The Hindu about the proposal, Ms. Clark, who was previously Prime Minister of New Zealand said wouldn’t confirm her decision to run, but wouldn’t rule it out. “There’s never been a woman UNSG, so of course people are saying what about this time. But whoever is selected they are going to have to fit the skill-set that they need for the job,” she said, adding that the process for declaring candidates had only just begun and would only get under way in July 2016. Some of the other likely candidates are also women, suggesting that gender issues, like that of domestic abuse and marital rape will take centre stage in the next few years.
On March 10th, in a written answer to a question by an MP, Ms. Gandhi had submitted the government’s position in parliament, saying that the “concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors like level of education/illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament, etc.,” which set off a furore in parliament and outside of it, with strong criticism from women’s right activists.
Ms. Gandhi had essentially repeated the government’s stand from April 2015, when it had said that there was no proposal to amend Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code which makes an exception to “Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife” so long as the wife is above 15 years of age. At the time, the Minister of State for Women and Child Development Haribhai Chaudhury had admitted that the amendment had been refused by the government in a reply to the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
Since then, however, the government has agreed along with about 150 to adopt the 17 Goals for 2030 set out by the UNDP. At the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015, PM Narendra Modi addressed the UNGA committing India to the goals which includes a target of eliminating “all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres”. The reference to private spheres is what the UN believes must include the criminalization of marital rape, if India is to keep that promise.
“The PM of this country (PM Modi) went to parliament to say the safety of women is a priority. So I wouldn’t question the commitment, but we need to make it the goal,” explained Ms. Clark. When asked for her response to the government’s submission that Indian culture doesn’t accept the concept of Marital rape, Ms. Clark said, “Its pretty clear in the circles I move in at the UN that rape is rape. The issue is the consent of the women, and if it isn’t there it is rape.”
> Read the full interview with UNDP Chief
