Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has made representations to the Government of India on its recent judicial interventions relating to the criminalisation of marital rape.

The British High Commission in New Delhi and our network of Deputy High Commissions work closely with Indian civil society and non-governmental organisations that are directly promoting women's awareness of their rights and supporting survivors of sexual violence through the Indian criminal justice system. Our project work primarily tackles the drivers of human rights violations, working with minority communities to encourage empowerment, promote women's rights and demonstrate our support. We are working with the Gender Resource Center of the Madhya Pradesh Police to train a core group of officers on tackling crimes against women and scaling up good practices. From 2016-2019, with the support of British businesses, we supported the training of over 33,000 garment sector workers across India on their legal rights to tackle sexual harassment in the workplace.

We engage with India on a range of human rights matters, working with Union and State Governments, and with non-governmental organisations, to build capacity and share expertise to promote human rights for all. Where we have concerns, we raise them directly with the Government of India, including at ministerial level.