In a marriage-obsessed India, the sexual abuse of a 16-year-old wife shouldn't come as a surprise. And if that's not enough the minor wife is now being asked to carry on with the abuse as part of her conjugal duties.

A Hyderabad schoolgirl, who was forcibly married to a 35-year-old man last year, has been slapped with a legal notice asking her to resume her conjugal duties after she returned home following physical and sexual abuse by her husband.

According to an NDTV report, the police say they can't take action against the husband without a complaint as child marriage is "not automatically illegal".

No, don't start castigating the police. Incidentally, the law only prevents marriages of children; it does not render them illegal once they actually happen. Further, the police are not authorised to arrest anyone for taking part in such a marriage. Child rights activists often complain that even if someone tries to prevent solemnisation of child marriages, the "system" is so complicated that most weddings already take place by the time the papers are ready.

According to the UN, this is one of the main reasons why the custom of child marriages still flourishes in India. However, the married children have the right to declare their marriages void. A woman can call off a marriage until she turns 20.

School children taking part in an awareness campaign to stop child marriages in Bikaner. (Photo: PTI)

The law seems to be even more appalling when it comes to consent for having sex. Even though sexual intercourse with a girl below the age of 18 is considered rape, a man can legally have sex with his wife even if she is a minor, as long as she is above the age of 15, since child marriages are deemed “not automatically illegal”. And it doesn't stop there because marital rape is not criminalised in India.

While a huge political battle has already erupted over the Muslim divorce law (triple talaq), the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, seems to be of little help to women trapped in abusive marriages, let alone minor girls.

The Hindu law considers marriage as a "sacrament" which is "eternal". The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, was enacted to counter inequalities among spouses and to protect this sacramental aspect of marriage. The act also ascribed "restitution of conjugal rights", something that requires both parties in a marriage to live together and cohabit. It is this very law that been misused against women.

With such archaic and convoluted laws in place and no one doing anything about it, no wonder all the big talk about women's rights is just a political fad.

Also read: Child sexual abuse: On parents and demons