Five laws Indian women need as urgently as ban on triple talaq

In its urgency to push through the Triple Talaq Bill, the government appears to have overlooked five criminal laws relating to women and marriage identified in 2015 by a government committee as needing immediate political attention.

These are: Criminalising marital rape; clarifying the definition of "cruelty by husband and his relatives",;plugging a loophole in the anti-dowry law; ensuring the same age of marriage for women and men; and outlawing khap panchayats that impinge on the right to choose whom one wants to marry.

"Improving the legal status of women involves a multi-pronged approach that looks first and foremost at the legislative inadequacies and state policies and schemes closely, followed by addressing the inadequate implementation of laws by the State, police and courts," the report said.

Criminalise marital rape: Currently, there is no legal recourse for victims of marital rape as section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, provides an exception to marital rape."The exemption of marital rape stems from a long outdated notion of marriage which regarded wives as no more than the property of their husbands," the report observed, adding that "the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim should be irrelevant in evaluating consent".

"These numbers are still low compared to the number of cases where police turn away victims of various kinds of abuse that are not merely physical," said Flavia Agnes, women's rights lawyer. "Since it is not clearly defined under the current law, these cases are often not registered."

The committee has recommended that the definition of cruelty be reviewed to include "the varied forms of violence against women in the home and to ensure that it is in line with the definition of 'domestic violence' given under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA), 2005".

The Act seeks to protect and shelter women who report to be facing any kind of abusive behaviour by her husband/male partner or their relatives (male and female). It clearly defines and expands the concept of abuse to include not only the physical but also verbal, emotional, sexual and economic.

However, for a decade from 2005 to 2015, 88,467 women, or an average of 22 each day, died in dowry-related cases, indicating how little has changed despite the existence of an anti-dowry law for nearly six decades. In 2016 alone, 1,354 dowry deaths were reported, NCRB data showed.Same minimum age of marriage: The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006 outlaws child marriages -- where the a boy is under 21 years of age or the girl, under 18.

The committee recommended that the minimum age be made the same. "Child marriage is not just a social norm but denial of childhood with irreversible consequences, especially for girls," the report said.Underage marriages, especially of girls, are rising in urban India and declining in rural India."Honour killing is not just a way of punishing the one who has brought dishonour to the family, it is indeed a barbaric murder usually of girls."

"Violence against women has been acknowledged as one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men and therefore a violation of women's equality rights," the report said."Passing legislation however does not indicate judicial or executive sensitivity to women's rights. Faithful implementation of the laws is thus the essence for good governance."