I once witnessed a man beaten to an inch of death for saying that he was abused by his wife. I still wonder if our current legal system is really striving to give women an upper hand? And siding with the very thought, scores of men in Delhi rallied against the Criminalization of Marital Rape on the International Men’s Day.

From Gurugram to Red Fort, the rally marched on against the ongoing debate of making marital rape an offense by law. The matter is currently being monitored by the Delhi High Court.

Every month, SIF-one, the largest all-India helpline for men in distress, gets more than 5,000 calls. While we are actively encouraging women to take a stand against domestic violence, we need to accept that men, yes men too, suffer from the same evil.

Rakesh Joshi, 36, says his wife resorted to physical assault whenever he refused to have sex. “It started with emotional abuse at first. I was married for a year and a half and was working at a call center. There used to be days when my working hours were extremely tiring and left me with no energy to sexually engage with my wife,” he said.

“But, my wife was so adamant that she would blackmail me with the threat of a case of impotence. This left me with no option but to force myself to have sex with her. Eventually, she started clawing my arms and neck whenever I said no,” he added. The day Rakesh decided to resist this and said a final no, his wife alleged that he was harassing her and filed a complaint.

Calling the step to criminalize marital rape a deliberate scheme to create another law which would only serve as a tool to be used against the victim, Men’s rights activist Amit Lakhani is not in favor of the law. In his opinion, the law would do nothing except make the husband a criminal beyond doubt without judging the situation first.

“But the fact of the matter is that anyone can be at the receiving end of spousal sexual violence. If a wife alleges to being subjected to sexual violence by her husband, we already have laws that cover it,” he said.

The Indian legal system does not recognize domestic violence on men, leave aside spousal sexual violence, so is the stand these men have taken right? Will the Law be able to protect men’s rights, as well?

What do you think?