‘Boys will be boys. They make mistakes’. What does this statement convey? That nobody should be held accountable for their sudden fetishes or perversions towards women? Come on, display some of that social consciousness that is bandied about so much in official and international speeches about how Indian women are revered as goddesses.
With the overarching concern of preventing sexual violence and a much sturdier expectation of navigating the concept of consent in physical relationships and the unavoidable intersection of gender, this piece aims to deconstruct the present understanding of consent.
Nothing that is ‘imposed’, survives for too long. Marriage as an institution continues to exist, around the world, because a large majority of people ‘choose’ to opt for it. But it is also true that world over, many people are now questioning the institution of marriage and opting instead to remain life-long companions without the shackles or protection of the law.
The doors of Delhi High Court have been fluttering since last one month with voices being raised to criminalize exception 2 Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). All India Democratic Women Association, RIT Foundation and two other organizations are behind putting forth this initiative. The Court has been going through the legality of the exception and whether it serves any purpose in modern-day India or is it just a colonial provision still draping in the books of the criminal manual.
COVID-19 has been a fertile spawning field of sexual violence. Where some Courts have been deontological and acknowledging of this phenomenon, certain judgments act as a means of disenfranchisement of sexual violence victims.