JioHotstar Actor Prasanna Bisht plays Pooja, a new bride who is raped by her husband on their wedding night A new web series that confronts marital rape in India has put the spotlight on the grim topic in a country that has stubbornly refused to criminalise it. Chiraiya - the Hindi word for small birds - aired on JioHotstar in March. It has already drawn an audience of millions, making it one of the network's most popular Hindi shows in months. Praised by media critics for confronting a subject that is largely seen as taboo, it has sparked conversations on social media about consent and misogyny. At the same time, some commentators have described it as "anti-men" and "an attempt to undermine the sanctity of marriage". Divy Nidhi Sharma, the show's scriptwriter, says the series follows two women, Kamlesh and Pooja. Kamlesh, played by Divya Dutta, is a middle-aged homemaker who firmly believes "women should be interested in cooking and housework". Pooja, played by Prasanna Bish, is educated, socially conscious and talks about gender equality and dignity. Their worlds collide when Pooja marries Arun – Kamlesh's brother-in-law that she reared as her own son. He is seen as the perfect match for Pooja, but her dreams of a happily ever after are shattered when he rapes her on their wedding night. When she confronts him, Arun tells her he has "just taken what's mine". "Why do you keep repeating that I raped you?" he says, adding that marital rape is not a crime in India and there is no law to deal with it. JioHotstar Kamlesh, played by award-winning actor Divya Dutta Dutta says the show is about consent, "specifically in a marriage, which is considered a very, very special bond". "Marital rape is very difficult to talk about. Every woman who goes through it thinks it's just her story. She thinks if she speaks about it, there will be social stigma, the harmony of the house will be disrupted," she tells the BBC. In the show, when a battered and bruised Pooja speaks up about how Arun is treating her, she is advised by everyone, including her mother, to adjust, as talking about it would only bring them shame. Kamlesh starts off believing consent for sex is implicit in the marriage, Dutta says. But as the series progresses, her thought process begins to change when she is forced to decide between her "comfort zone" or "to hold the hand of a woman she's not really fond of". "She comes to choose the right path," Dutta says, becoming a dependable ally of Pooja. Some 6.1% of Indian women who have ever been married women have experienced sexual violence, according to [government data](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12982-025-00667-7). But despite years of campaigning by activists, India remains among three dozen countries - along with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia - where marital rape is not outlawed. Activists have filed a number of petitions in recent years in the Supreme Court calling for marital rape to be criminalised. But the government, religious groups and men's rights activists [oppose any plans to amend the Colonial-era law](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c80r38yeempo), which exempts a man for having forced sex with his wife if she is not a minor. There was outrage last year when a man convicted of raping his wife, who died within hours of the alleged assault, [was freed on appeal](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm29drxjlxmo) because, as the judge said, India did not recognise marital rape. Sharma, Chiraiya's scriptwriter, tells the BBC: "This injustice is happening within our homes, in our neighbourhoods. "What I find most troubling is that there's no legal or social recourse. So, as a writer I felt I should do my bit about it." JioHotstar Director Shashant Shah says they took care to ensure men in Chiraiya are not villainous caricatures Adapted from a Bengali show called Sampoorna, Chiraiya has been reimagined for northern India, which is a much more patriarchal region. "The protagonist of Sampoorna is a feminist," says Shamra. "Our protagonist Kamlesh is a woman who doesn't even know the spelling of misogyny, she's so steeped in patriarchal conditioning that her moral compass has gone haywire. "But in the end, she rises to fight what's wrong." Director Shashant Shah says with Kamlesh, "we wanted to present a woman that millions of women in India can relate to". "She is a person who has faith in the family system. But slowly you see the transformation, as her world slowly crumbles, she realises it's all a façade, a farce where people are suffering within the family." The intention behind making Chiraiya, he says, "was not to question the government or laws, we wanted to raise this question to the society - how do you look at it? We wanted to make people aware". Pooja's story, he says, "is fictional, but it's the reality for millions of women" and with Kamlesh's character, "we wanted to tell a story of sisterhood". Though the web series centres around women, Shah says they took care to ensure men in Chiraiya are not frothing-at-the-mouth villainous caricatures. "They are not monsters - they are just regular people we encounter in our daily lives. Patriarchy is so deeply entrenched that most people are not even aware they are being misogynistic," he says. JioHotstar Divya Dutta says she believes that impactful stories like Chiraiya have the power to change the world The response to the show, Dutta says, has been "absolutely overwhelming". "I've been getting midnight messages and calls and personal notes on Instagram and Twitter. Everyone's watching it. Veteran actors are calling me to say thank you for doing this. Someone sent me a sari with a heartfelt note, somebody's sent a poem they've written. I think it really stirred something within everyone." There have also been some negative responses. Sharma says some people are "getting triggered" by it and there's been "a backlash from a section of men saying shows like these portray men in a bad light". "But our aim was to just start a conversation. We are artists, we can't make laws, we can't curb crimes, we can't change society rapidly, but we can use art to make a taboo topic mainstream," he says. Dutta says she is concentrating on the positives and ignoring the rest. "I would rather not read that 1% \[negative feedback\] and thrive on the 99% who are giving it their love, who are saying thank you. Let's concentrate on the thank yous." Dutta says she believes that impactful stories like Chiraiya have the power to change the world. "I think this will make a difference in more ways than one because it is telling us where we are going wrong. And rather than just putting the onus on the outside, for someone else to do something for us, this show just emphasises that let's start from home first. "And that is a first step, but it is a very strong step."

Image source, Shahnawaz Ahmad Image caption, The mother of four young children was attacked in her own home and gang-raped by a group of men **Thirteen years after the gang rape of an Indian woman on a bus in the capital Delhi made global headlines, a new case that comes close in brutality inflicted on a woman has been reported from the northern state of Bihar.** Campaigners say her story is also one of apathy from the police and medical authorities that women who face sexual assault, especially in small towns and villages, routinely encounter in India. _**Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find distressing.**_ Indian law prohibits naming victims of sexual assault so we are going to call the survivor Soma (not her real name). The 28-year-old mother of four young children told BBC Hindi that she was attacked in her own home and gang-raped by a group of men who allegedly inserted objects into her vagina. The incident took place on the night of 11 June in a village in Begusarai - a district that is officially recognised as one of India's most socially and economically backward. The case gained national attention after hospital officials confirmed she was assaulted with objects, which doctors removed. She also brought a bullet casing, which she said was one of the items used. Giving details of the horrific assault, Soma said she was in the toilet outside her one-room home at night when five men barged in. The toilet does not have a door, only a curtain hangs over it to provide some privacy. "They stripped me, gagged me, and tied my hands. When I tried to fight back, they slashed my chest with a blade and raped me," she added. Her husband, she said, initially dismissed her groans as noises made by a stray cat, but then he grew suspicious and tried to check. "But the house was locked from the outside. He called a neighbour who came and unlocked the door and everyone saw my condition and began to cry." Image source, Shahnawaz Ahmad Image caption, The survivor's house had an outdoor bathroom which only had a cloth curtain - she was attacked in there Begusarai superintendent of police Maneesh (who uses only one name) told the BBC that Soma's "medical report has confirmed sexual assault". "There are three named and two unidentified accused in this case. We have arrested two of them. A Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has been constituted for the case, is conducting raids to arrest the others and the investigation is ongoing," he said. Police say some of the accused have a previous history of crimes and have invoked sections dealing with gang rape against them. On the night of her horrific assault, Soma said she received little help from the police or medical authorities. The husband, an e-rickshaw driver, reportedly took his unconscious wife to a police station about 3 km from their home. He says the police refused to file a complaint and sent them away, advising him instead to take her to a doctor. The police station head Rajiv Kumar has since been suspended for "negligence, apathy, and insensitivity", Begusarai police said. They said an FIR (First Information Report) in the case was registered at the local police station on 13 June. Since the assault, Soma and her husband say she has also struggled to get proper medical attention. On the night of the attack, she was reportedly turned away by a nearby private clinic, which said it did not handle emergencies and had no doctor on duty. She was then taken to a government community health centre, where she received first aid before being referred to a district hospital. Image source, Shahnawaz Ahmad Image caption, The survivor and her family lived in their one-room home Soma told the BBC the initial treatment she received at the hospital was far from satisfactory. After she regained consciousness on 12 June, she told her husband and the doctor who treated her about the gangrape. "The doctor asked me while administering an injection, 'Were you raped as well?' I kept telling her, 'Yes, Madam, I was'," she said. Ashok Kumar, the Civil Surgeon of Begusarai, however, told the BBC that the woman was brought in with complains of stomach pain. And that they were informed of the gangrape only on 13 June "after which the physicians immediately conducted her medical examination". The hospital sent Soma home after that, but she was back in hospital the next day after she lost consciousness, her husband told the BBC. She was again discharged a day later. "A village midwife, who examined her after she kept fainting and complaining of intense stomach pain, warned that there was something inside her body. On the morning of 18 June, Soma showed us a bullet casing which had dropped out from her vagina," he said, adding that he then took her back to the hospital. "It was an empty cartridge or shell casing," Civil Surgeon Kumar said. "We re-examined her and doctors removed other objects from her. She is currently stable and recovering." Soma's case has provoked outrage in India and drawn comparisons with the horrific 2012 Delhi gang rape - and subsequent death - of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student who was also violated with objects. Image source, Getty Images Image caption, There has been an increased scrutiny of sexual crimes in India since the 2012 gang rape on a bus in Delhi The crime sparked global outrage, mass protests across India, and prompted tougher anti-rape laws, including the death penalty in severe cases. Four men convicted were [executed](/news/world-asia-india-51969961) in 2020, one died in prison, and a juvenile offender was released after serving time in a reform centre. But despite the heightened scrutiny of sexual crimes since then, more than 30,000 cases of rape are recorded in India every year. "We have learnt no lessons," says anti-rape campaigner Yogita Bhayana, adding that most cases go unreported or unnoticed because society has become desensitised to extreme brutality. "Such cases keep happening because the message has not percolated down to every last corner of India that rape can get them capital punishment. Fear has not been instilled in society," she told the BBC. "The media attention Soma's case has received is only because of the reports that a bullet was inserted into her private parts. At least she survived and I see that as a positive," Bhayana says. Back in Begusarai, Soma remains in a hospital bed, frequently disturbed by visits from journalists, politicians, and social workers. She is still in significant pain but hopes to recover soon and return home to her children. "I am very worried about my children, they are so young. They are being look after by relatives in the village about 35km away from here. I want to get back home to them soon." * [Rape in India](/news/topics/c1038wnxn2wt) * [India](/news/world/asia/india) * [Women in India](/news/topics/c55w63pqgx4t)

An Indian court has sentenced a high-profile former editor of an investigative news magazine to 10 years in prison after convicting him of raping a junior colleague, overturning his acquittal in a case that drew nationwide attention. Tarun Tejpal, 63, the founder and former editor of Tehelka magazine, [was accused of raping a journalist in the lift of a five-star hotel](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/17/indian-editor-tarun-tejpal-charged-rape-sexual-abuse) in the western coastal state of Goa during an event in November 2013. He was arrested and spent seven months in jail until the supreme court granted him bail. A court in Goa acquitted Tejpal of charges including rape, sexual harassment and wrongful restraint in 2021. The government of Goa challenged the acquittal before the Bombay high court, which set aside the trial court’s verdict and sentenced him to 10 years in jail on Thursday. “He has been convicted to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. He has been given two weeks’ time to surrender,” the police investigator Sunita Sawant, who led the case against Tejpal, told reporters. The court also ordered him to pay a £3,900 fine, he said. Tejpal, 63, said he would challenge the conviction in the supreme court. He had initially blamed the assault on “a lapse of judgement” but later alleged the case against him was part of a vendetta by the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government in Goa. “For the past 13 years, they have been pursuing me as a part of a political vendetta,” he said after conviction. Sawant told reporters: “This is a sentence where a girl has stood up for her rights … so this judgment is very important for women who are working in any sector.” The case emerged at a time when India’s handling of sexual assault cases was under intense scrutiny after [the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a Delhi bus](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/29/india-gang-rape-six-men-charged-murder) in December 2012. That attack triggered nationwide protests and international outrage, and prompted the government to strengthen the country’s rape laws. Tejpal’s case severely damaged the authority and credibility of Tehelka, which had historically championed women’s rights and social justice. The magazine continues to operate under new leadership, but it has failed to regain the influence it had before the 2013 case. _Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, [Rape Crisis](https://rapecrisis.org.uk/) offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in [Scotland](https://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/), or 0800 0246 991 in [Northern Ireland](https://rapecrisisni.org.uk/). In the US, [Rainn](https://www.rainn.org/) offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at [1800Respect](https://www.1800respect.org.au/) (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at [ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html](http://ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html)_