MARITAL RAPE AND ITS IMPACT ON HEALTH AND NUTRITIONAL WELLBEING OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Abstract

Marital rape and sexual violence within marriage continue to occupy a legally ambiguous and socially contested space in India. While feminist legal scholarship has increasingly foregrounded questions of consent, autonomy, and bodily integrity, the material and structural consequences of such violence—particularly nutritional deprivation—remain under-theorised within legal discourse. This paper undertakes a doctrinal and interdisciplinary analysis to examine the relationship between marital rape and the nutritional consequences experienced by women and their children. Drawing upon constitutional principles, statutory frameworks, judicial trends, and public health evidence on marital violence, the paper argues that nutritional harm is not a peripheral or incidental outcome but a legally cognizable injury flowing directly from sexual violence within marriage. The paper further contends that the continued marital rape exception in Indian criminal law perpetuates systemic malnutrition, undermines women’s reproductive health, and produces inter-generational nutritional deficits among children. By situating nutrition within the framework of dignity, equality, and the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the study makes a case for reimagining marital rape as both a criminal wrong and a public health injustice requiring an integrated legal response.