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If it's only the fear of legal punishment through our adultery law that keeps you from cheating on your spouse, then are you really in a happy and healthy marriage?
If it’s only the fear of legal punishment through our adultery law that keeps you from cheating on your spouse, then are you really in a happy and healthy marriage?
Our Government seems to think that it doesn’t matter, and that punishing the man committing adultery is enough to keep the ‘sanctity of marriage’ intact!
Mind you, no punishment for the married woman though, because she definitely has no agency or a say in her relationships, right? She is just an object without any opinion of her own.
These are some of the thoughts that went through my mind while I read the recent news about the Centre not being in favour of making changes in the adultery law, i.e. Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that punishes adultery.
The Centre informed the same to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Earlier, an individual called Joseph Shine had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) demanding that the adultery law be made gender neutral in that both the man and the woman involved in adultery must be awarded with equal punishment.
The current Section 497 IPC punishes only the man involved in adultery with a married woman, with a prison sentence of up to 5 years or with a fine, or both. The woman on the other hand receives no punishment as per this law.
According to the Centre, making changes in Section 497 IPC might adversely impact the sanctity of the marriage bond.
How funny is this that the Government thinks that punishing a man for committing adultery is enough to keep the ‘sacred bond of marriage’ intact.
Fear of punishment shouldn’t be the reason for a man to stay faithful in a marriage! Secondly, if adultery is punishable, then shouldn’t both the man and the woman be punished?
Finally and most importantly, should there really be a punishment for two consenting adults being involved in a relationship? Their cheating on their spouses is of course, grounds for a separation or divorce in their marriages. However, are they really in very strong marriages if the only reason they aren’t cheating on their spouses is because it is punishable by law?
Let us stop treating marriage as a an enforceable bond. The marital bonds between two individuals should be based on ideals such as love, mutual respect, and loyalty. In case those are missing, why should two individuals be forced into staying with each other just because they had signed some papers in the past?
It is high time that our government starts treating its citizens as independent adults capable of making our own choices. The sanctity of marriage cannot be maintained by imposing a draconian law.
A successful marriage is the result of tremendous love and effort put forth by two individuals into their relationship; a government in no way should have a role to play in it.
Kasturi’s debut novel, forthcoming in early 2021, had won the novel pitch competition by Half Baked Beans Publishers. She won the Runner Up Position in the Orange Flower Awards 2021 for Short Fiction. Her read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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