However under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, sex with a minor under the age of sixteen years constitutes rape. If the minor concerned is the wife of the other partner, then the age is fifteen years. What is shocking is that for women who are fifteen years of age or older, the law in India does not recognize marital rape as an offence. In the case of forcible sex, the most a wife can do is sue for divorce on the ground of cruelty. This ground is not available to Christian women under the Indian Divorce Act.
Christian men can obtain a divorce if they prove just one ground.
Though the Child Marriage Restraint Act outlaws child marriage, the Act is often rendered ineffective. Various marriage laws allow minors to be married with the consent of their parents or guardians. Except in the state of Goa, there is no law for the distribution of matrimonial property. Women are dependent on their husbands for maintenance. As a result, even in a case of marital discord involving cruelty, divorce is usually the last option and women continue to suffer in the confines of disastrous and even deadly marriages.