As they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and a recent incident has proven how dangerous it can turn out to be. Rajya Sabha member and BJP leader Ajay Pratap Singh addressed the government on Wednesday and suggested that the government make a law to declare live-in relationships illegal. To support his argument, the BJP leader cited WHO data without clarifying it thereby making an argument based on distorted data.
Addressing the Rajya Sabha during Special Mentions, BJP leader Ajay Pratap Singh urged the Indian government to ban live-in relationships and cited the example of a woman who was murdered by her live-in partner in Mumbai. In order to support his argument against live-in relationships, the BJP leader cited WHO data highlighting that 38% of women across the globe are killed by their intimate partner. However, the one important thing that our learned leader failed to mention is that this data also includes women who are married. Further, the leader claimed that marriage and family ties are a part of India’s culture however, our customs and scriptures do not recognise live-in relationships.
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Speaking about Supreme Court legalising live-in relationships, BJP’s Ajay Pratap Singh stated that the Apex Court had said that our society considers live-in relationships unethical but that does make them illegal. But our BJP leader said that he believes that if something is unethical then it should also be illegal while claiming that a law should be brought to stop live-in relationships to protect women.
Now, allow me to elaborate a little. As per NCRB data, every hour a woman becomes a victim of dowry death in India and as per the NFHS about 30% of married women experience sexual or domestic violence. But we don’t hear Mr Ajay Pratap Singh seeking a ban on marriage or criminalisation of marital rape, do we now? If this ban that the BJP leader is asking for is meant to protect women, then why isn’t he looking at the 30% married women and focusing solely on the 8% of women who are murdered by their intimate partner like a boyfriend or a live-in partner?
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We’ve all come across cases of acid attacks and we don’t hear him talking about a strict ban on the sale of acid. What we do see is the BJP leader twisting data to seek a ban on something just because Indian society finds it “unethical”. Allow me to point out another thing. It looks like Mr Ajay Pratap Singh did not bother to read the WHO data he quoted. Had he read further he would’ve read the factors associated with intimate partner violence shared by WHO which highlights things like marital discord, male controlling behaviour, past exposure to violence, gender inequality and acceptability of violence against women. If only sir had taken the time to get complete information.