Shashi Tharoor's private member's Bill seeks to criminalise marital rape

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has introduced a private member's Bill, seeking to criminalise marital rape, to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, and to provide for free sanitary napkins to women across the country.

The Women's Sexual, Reproductive and Menstrual Rights Bill 2018 aims to restore sexual and reproductive autonomy to women. " … marital rape must be criminalized to eliminate the loss of a woman's sexual independence post marriage. Further, unrelated facts about a woman's life such as caste, profession, clothing preference, personal opinion and past sexual conduct, among others should not be factors in presuming her sexual consent," the statement of the Bill states.

The Bill seeks to amend section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 by replacing the assumption of consent under the pretext of a woman being married with the word, "that her consent is given because she believes that he is another man with whom she wants to engage in sexual intercourse or sexual acts." It also seeks to insert a sub-section that states that a woman's ethnicity, religion, caste, education, profession, clothing preference, entertainment preference, social circle, personal opinion, past sexual conduct or any other related grounds" will not be used to assume consent.

Apart from that, the Bill also proposes an amendment to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act to allow for legal termination of pregnancy below twenty-four weeks, with exceptions such as endangering the life of the woman. The Bill also lays down a provision for public schools to provide girls with free sanitary napkins, as well as separate toilets for boys and girls.

Tharoor says that the bill seeks to shifting from the idea of 'no means no' to 'yes means yes'. "The Bill seeks to restore a woman's autonomy, married or otherwise, including her sexual, reproductive and menstrual rights. The idea is to put the idea in the public domain to drive up a pertinent conversation," said Tharoor. He said that his expectations that the Bill will be passed in the current Cabinet is " very low".