--- description: India's Minister for Women and Child Development says marital rape cannot be criminalized in India because it is a foreign concept title: Indian Minister: Marital Rape Doesn't Apply Here image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt204984287a48201f/69888a9f2dce013f979e8284/rts535x.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # India's Minister for Women: Marital Rape Is a Foreign Concept and Doesn't Apply Here by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 11, 2016 8:09 AM CUT  India's Women and Child Welfare Minister Maneka Gandhi at her office in New Delhi on Oct. 19, 2015 India's Women and Child Welfare Minister Maneka Gandhi at her office in New Delhi on Oct. 19, 2015Adnan Abidi—Reuters by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 11, 2016 8:09 AM CUT India is [not ready to criminalize marital rape](http://indianexpress.com/article/business/budget/imarital-rape-concept-maneka-gandhi-indian-context/ "undefined") because it cannot be defined under the same parameters “as understood internationally,” the country’s Minister for Women and Child Development said on Thursday. The minister, Maneka Gandhi, told the upper house of Parliament that the concept of marital rape “cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context,” the _Indian Express_ reported. Gandhi cited the South Asian nation’s “illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament, etc.,” as reasons for the government’s refusal to make spousal sexual assault illegal, in a written response to a question raised in Parliament. Multiple Indian administrations have declined to amend the country’s rape law — which considers any intercourse between a man and his wife legal as long as she is older than 15 — despite several directives to do so by the judiciary. \[[_Indian Express_](http://indianexpress.com/article/business/budget/imarital-rape-concept-maneka-gandhi-indian-context/ "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4255226/maneka-gandhi-marital-rape-india/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4255226/maneka-gandhi-marital-rape-india/"},"headline":"India's Minister for Women: Marital Rape Is a Foreign Concept and Doesn't Apply Here","datePublished":"2016-03-11T08:09:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:49:27.008Z","description":"Maneka Gandhi cited factors like the country's \"poverty, illiteracy and myriad social customs\"","url":"https://time.com/4255226/maneka-gandhi-marital-rape-india/","keywords":["India","Government","Law","Parliament"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt204984287a48201f/69888a9f2dce013f979e8284/rts535x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt204984287a48201f/69888a9f2dce013f979e8284/rts535x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Indias Women and Child Welfare minister Gandhi works on a computer before an interview with Reuters at her office in New Delhi","caption":"Indias Women and Child Welfare minister Gandhi works on a computer before an interview with Reuters at her office in New Delhi","creditText":"Adnan Abidi—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4255226/maneka-gandhi-marital-rape-india/","name":"India's Minister for Women: Marital Rape Is a Foreign Concept and Doesn't Apply Here"}}]}] ```