Women don`t need court endorsement for consensual sex: Renuka Chowdhary

New Delhi: Women above 18 can have consensual sex and do not need court endorsement for that, Congress leader Renuka Chowdhary on Friday said following a Delhi court judgement which held that there is a disturbing trend in some cases that women first have consensual sex and then allege it to be a rape. The Party spokesperson Chowdhary also said that derogatory attributes that are given to a woman who goes in for consensual sex cannot be confused with deliberate brutal rape.

At the outset, the Congress spokesperson said that she cannot comment on a judgement or on what the Judge said. "...While there may be some truth to...Yes that women do have consensual sex and then conveniently change. I don`t think it was appropriate. Though I cannot comment on what the Judge has said in the judgement but stepping back from that I would say that it is the challenge ahead all of us women. First that women are entitled to consensual sex. We do not need anyone`s permission if you are above 18. You are entitled to consensual sex. We don`t need court judgement or endorsement for that," Chowdhary said. Maintaining that rape is not a consensual sex, she said, "that is something --- the division and the discrimination and the kind of derogatory attributes that are given to a woman who goes in for consensual sex cannot be confused with deliberate brutal rape and that distinction is to be very-very clear made by the law makers, by the people who adhere to this and by the people who implement the judgements." She said that it was "very-very regrettable" that there is such confusion between rape and consensual sex. "There is rape even within a marriage and that is what needs to be taken cognisance of. It is not always that the woman is willing. In a rape the woman is violated, she is not a willing consensual partner," Chowdhary said. A local court while acquitting a man charged with raping the sister-in-law of his brother had also said that "girls are morally and socially bound not to indulge in sexual intercourse before a proper marriage, and if they do so, it would be to their peril and they cannot be heard crying later that it was rape."