Marital Rape: 82% Married Women Refuse Sex to Husband, 66% Men Believe It’s Okay For Wife to Say No, Finds National Family Health Survey

At a time when the discussion on the Criminalization of Marital Rape is in full swing in the country, the report of the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-21) has revealed that 82 per cent of women in India can refuse to engage in sex with their husbands. The National Family Health Survey-5 which was conducted between (2019-21), revealed that women (80%) and men (66%) believe it is okay for the wife to refuse sex. The reasons for refusing sex might include the partner having a sexually transmissible disease, him having another partner, or simply because she doesn’t want to or is tired. However, at least 8% of women and 10% of men still believe that a wife cannot refuse sex.

The questions were asked in the section on women empowerment in the NFHS survey. The section titled ‘attitudes towards negotiating safer sexual relations with husband’ talked about the crucial factor of consent in a relationship for enabling gender equality.

The participants in the survey belonged to the age category of 15-49 years. Rape is Rape, Be It By Man or Husband': Karnataka HC on Marital Rape

The per cent of adults who agree that women have a right to refuse sex to their husbands for all three specified reasons has increased by 12 per cent for women and only 3 per cent for men from the NFHS-4 (2015-16).

During the survey, men were asked some additional questions to assess gender attitudes. These pertained to a situation when a woman refuses to have sex with her husband when he wants her to. Men were asked whether they believe they have the right to four kinds of behaviour: Get angry and reprimand her, refuse to give her money or other means of financial support, use force and have sex with her even if she doesn’t want to, and go and have sex with another woman. 'Man & Wife Pillars of Family, if One Breaks, Whole House Crashes', Says Delhi High Court

The Survey states “Only 6 per cent of men age 15-49 agree that men have the right to display all four of these behaviours if a wife refuses him sex, and 72 per cent do not agree with any of the four behaviours. However, 19 per cent of men do agree that a husband has the right to get angry and reprimand a woman if she refuses to have sex with her husband.”

Sadly, 45% of women and 44% of men believe that a husband is justified in beating his wife in at least one of seven specified circumstances — if she goes out without telling him; neglects the house or the children; argues with him; refuses to have sex with him; doesn’t cook food properly; suspects her of being unfaithful; or shows disrespect to her in-laws. While women justifying wife beating declined by seven percentage points from 52%, in case of men it is up by two percentage points from 42%.

As per the present Indian law, under the exception to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 10, 2022 04:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).