Promised, but did not marry? 10 years in an Indian prison (6 photos)

Men who "taste" a woman by promising to marry her but do not, can now face up to 10 years in prison in India. So Indian law does not mock people, but tries to combat a form of violence against women.





Weddings in India are not a cheap pleasure, grooms under 40 who are still unmarried are not uncommon

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a new criminal code in early July, replacing the 164-year-old Indian criminal code from the colonial era.

Section 69 of the new law criminalizes sexual relations with a woman "by promising to marry her without any intention" or "by fraudulent means" such as false promises of career advancement.

The crime is punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years and a fine.

It hasn't even started yet, but it has already started



Women in India are demanding rights, and they are right about that, there is not much of that there yet

Women started going to court with such "promised but did not marry" claims long before the new law was introduced. Because many were deceived and persuaded to have an intimate encounter.

And since Indian society is quite conservative (and it's funny, remember who wrote the Kama Sutra), female virginity is still a key value for marriage here, along with a dowry. Sleeping before marriage is a terrible taboo in many states, and any hint that a girl is not pure - and she will not be married. Meanwhile, men want relationships and just sex.

And the problem was solved in such an extravagant way. Want to have a relationship? Promise to marry and marry, then you will not go to jail.





Free relationships are only for very, very large cities in India

And what did they do with them before?

The thing is that there are thousands, if not millions, of such cases of "promised but deceived" in India. And each court decided in its own way, some believed that the man was not lying, but then changed his mind.

And in more advanced cities, they tried and sent to prison for this, just so that this practice would not go unpunished among the people. So that gossip would not spread that this could be done, in short.



India is FULL of movies about the tragedy of a girl being deprived of her honor

A promise to marry was not considered violence or coercion to intimacy, although refusing to marry after this intimacy made the girl unfit for marriage. It's damn unfair to the girl who trusted the guy, don't you think?

That's why the Indian court came up with such a fair, ambiguous law. Ambiguous, so much so that now it's really impossible to change your mind, even if you were in love and then discovered that your chosen one was a real devil in a skirt.



And there is also a "groom market" in India. Not married? Just go to the market!

But it turns out that before, in order to accuse a man of violence, a woman had to undergo a medical examination after an attack on her, which many were embarrassed about. According to the wording of the new law, the deceived woman does not need to undergo any examination, because it was not violence, but deception.

"Without this, how will the prosecution prove that the victim was sexually exploited?" one of the judges doubts.



A man and a woman between the gates separating them, symbolic

I think this is just a transitional law until the era when a woman will no longer be stigmatized and condemned if she had an affair in her youth and close relationships. Then there will be no need to demand that even someone who no longer really wants to marry her.

But until this is eradicated, it will be like this. And it will be for a long time, they haven't even eradicated castes yet!