1. Introduction
India’s legal framework governing sexual offences has traditionally been shaped around protecting vulnerable populations, with women at the centre of that protective intent. While this orientation has had its historical justifications, it has produced an unintended consequence: a systematic gap in the law’s recognition of men as possible survivors of sexual violence. The governing statutes — originally rooted in the colonial-era Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, and now continued through the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 — define sexual offences in terms that are inherently and narrowly gendered, which sits in uncomfortable tension with contemporary constitutional commitments to equality and human dignity. Happy Kumari & Mayur Mahajan, Unheard Voices: Rethinking Sexual Violence Laws through a Gender-Neutral Lens, International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (2025).
This paper undertakes a critical doctrinal and jurisprudential examination of the ways in which Indian law fails male survivors of sexual violence. It argues that the current statutory framework not only breaches the constitutional guarantee of equality under Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, but also undermines the broader principle of equal protection embedded in Article 21, which protects the right to life and personal liberty for every citizen regardless of their gender. Avni Bhatia, Gender Discrimination in Indian Law: A Critical Analysis of Legal Protections for Men, Indian Journal of Legal Review (2025).
For decades, the discourse on sexual violence has been built almost entirely around female victimisation. That focus was historically warranted given the scale and persistence of violence against women. However, the singular attention it has received has paradoxically rendered male survivors legally invisible. This paper sets out to examine that invisibility — its legal origins, its social reinforcements, and the urgent case for comprehensive reform.
2. The Development of Sexual Offences Law in India
2.1 Colonial Foundations
The legal definition of rape in India traces its roots to Section 375 of the IPC, 1860, a provision drafted in the colonial period that mirrored the patriarchal assumptions and gender norms of nineteenth-century British jurisprudence. The provision framed rape exclusively as an act committed by a man against a woman, reflecting a broader ideological presumption that only women possessed sexual honour worthy of legal protection, and that male sexuality was inherently predatory. Arushi Bajpai & Akash Gupta, The Imperative of Gender Neutrality in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023: A Global Comparative Examination of Gender-Neutral Laws in Sexual Offences, Statute Law Review (2025).
Section 375 defined rape as sexual intercourse with a woman against her will, without her consent, or through compulsion, misrepresentation, or fraud. In doing so, it established the male perpetrator and female victim as the only legally recognised parties to a sexual offence — an approach that structurally excluded all other configurations of sexual violence. Kulvinder & Seema, Gender Neutrality in Sexual Offences: Need for Reform in Indian Rape Laws, International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (2025).
2.2 The 2013 Criminal Law Amendment: Progress with Limits
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, enacted in the aftermath of the public outcry following the Nirbhaya gang rape, marked a significant moment in India’s gender justice landscape. The amendment broadened the definition of sexual assault, introduced concepts such as outraging the modesty of a person, sexual harassment, voyeurism, and stalking, and imposed harsher penalties. Yet even this reform, significant as it was, stopped short of restructuring the gendered framework of rape, leaving principal liability confined to male perpetrators. Kulvinder & Seema (2025).
The Justice Verma Committee, constituted specifically to advise on criminal law reform following the 2012 case, had actually recommended adopting gender-neutral language in the definition of rape. These recommendations were not fully taken on board by the legislature, reflecting a broader political reluctance to disturb the established gendered order in law. Kulvinder & Seema (2025).
2.3 The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023: A Missed Opportunity
When India replaced the IPC with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in July 2024, it was presented as a modernisation of the country’s criminal justice framework — a fresh start that would address contemporary challenges and reflect India’s societal evolution. Section 63 of the BNS, which replaced Section 375 of the IPC, did expand the definition of rape to include penetration by objects, which addressed a genuine gap. However, the provision retained the same gendered core, defining rape as an offence committed only by men against women. Arushi Bajpai & Akash Gupta (2025).
That this gender-specific framing survived into a newly drafted statute — despite over a decade of advocacy from academic, judicial, and civil society quarters for reform — suggests a deliberate legislative choice to keep male and non-binary survivors outside the protective scope of the law. Happy Kumari & Mayur Mahajan (2025). The failure is particularly striking given that the BNS was explicitly intended to address the shortcomings of the antiquated IPC and to align Indian criminal law with contemporary constitutional values.
3. The Doctrine of Consent in Indian Criminal Law
3.1 Consent as a Foundational Concept
Consent lies at the heart of modern sexual offences law. The principle that sexual activity must be freely, voluntarily, and knowingly agreed to is now recognised as a fundamental human right, reflected in international conventions and adopted by progressive legal systems across the world. In India, however, the law’s approach to consent has remained hampered by gendered assumptions and an unnecessarily narrow conception of the circumstances in which consent can be vitiated. Happy Kumari & Mayur Mahajan (2025).
Indian law has historically focused on the absence of consent in female victims while remaining largely silent on how the concept of consent operates when men are on the receiving end of non-consensual sexual acts. This silence is especially pronounced in cases involving non-consensual acts committed by women against men, or by men against other men — situations in which the law provides virtually no criminal remedy.
3.2 Consent and Power Dynamics
Any serious analysis of consent must engage with the role of power in undermining it. Both Section 375 of the IPC and Section 63 of the BNS acknowledge that consent obtained through compulsion, fraud, or misrepresentation is not legally valid. Kulvinder & Seema (2025). In practice, however, courts and law enforcement agencies have been far more willing to recognise and act upon vitiated consent when the victim is female.
For male survivors, the question of consent is frequently not even raised. The legal system operates on an implicit assumption that men cannot be sexually victimised — an assumption rooted in patriarchal constructions of masculinity that position men as inherently dominant and incapable of vulnerability. This assumption finds no support in psychology, criminology, or human rights scholarship, yet it continues to shape legal doctrine and institutional practice. Chanda Pranitha et al., The Unheard Victims — Untold Stories About Men and Their Traumatising Experiences, International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (2025).
4. The Gendered Framework of Sexual Offences Provisions
4.1 Structural Exclusion in Statutory Definitions
The most fundamental problem with India’s sexual offences law is its structural exclusion of men from the category of victim. Section 375 of the IPC defined rape explicitly as penetrative sexual intercourse by a man with a woman without her consent. This framing operates on multiple levels of exclusion simultaneously: it recognises only men as possible perpetrators; it recognises only women as possible victims; and it confines the offence to penetrative acts, thereby placing non-penetrative forms of sexual abuse outside the definition’s reach.
The BNS, while expanding the definition to include penetration by objects, retains gender-specific language that continues to exclude male victims from its protective scope. Happy Kumari & Mayur Mahajan (2025). As a result, a man who is forcibly penetrated, coerced into sexual acts, or subjected to non-consensual sexual contact — whether by a woman or another man — has no recourse under the rape provisions.
4.2 Gendered Application of Protective Provisions
The gender bias in India’s sexual offences law extends well beyond the statutory definition of rape. The Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault and Other Crimes (2018), for example, was designed exclusively for female victims and provides no equivalent framework for male survivors. Samprikta Ghosh, Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault: A Critical Review, Veethika (2024). This is not a merely symbolic omission; it actively reflects and reinforces the legal system’s refusal to acknowledge male victimhood.
Similarly, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 explicitly limits its protective reach to female victims of domestic violence, thereby preventing male victims from accessing protective orders, financial relief, and other statutory remedies. Avni Bhatia (2025). These legislative choices reflect a particular politics of victimhood — one in which the law recognises only certain categories of persons as deserving protection.
4.3 The Marital Rape Exception
The marital rape exception, preserved in Exception 2 to Section 375 of the IPC and carried forward into the BNS, illustrates the law’s broader failure to engage meaningfully with consent in intimate relationships. The exception provides that sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, provided she is above a certain age, does not constitute rape. Hariom Tripathi & S.S. Shukla, Marital Rape: A Grim Reality? With Reference to Indian Society, Human Advancement Review (2024).
This provision rests on the premise that marriage constitutes a continuing and irrevocable consent to sexual intercourse, treating the marriage contract as conferring a proprietary right in a woman’s body. But beyond its implications for women, the exception also reveals how thoroughly gendered the law’s treatment of consent is: the reverse scenario — a wife forcing her husband into sexual acts — is not even contemplated by the law, because the very definition of rape forecloses it. P. Deosthali, S. Rege & Sanjida Arora, Women’s Experiences of Marital Rape and Sexual Violence within Marriage in India, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (2022).
5. Male Survivors: Recognition and Reality
5.1 The Prevalence of Male Sexual Victimisation
Reliable data on male sexual victimisation in India is difficult to come by, largely because of the profound underreporting that results from social stigma, shame, and the absence of any legal framework that would give male survivors a reason to come forward. Such evidence as exists, however, indicates that male survivors represent a larger population than is commonly acknowledged. Studies examining sexual assault presentations at tertiary hospitals have found that while the overwhelming majority of reported victims are female, a meaningful proportion are male, and these cases frequently involve young males assaulted by older men or by women. Vikas P. Meshram et al., Frenular Tear as a Sign of Non-Penetrative Sexual Assault in a Male Child: A Case Report with Medicolegal Implications, Medico-Legal Journal (2025).
International research consistently shows that males are significantly less likely to report sexual assault than females, with estimated non-reporting rates of between 80 and 90 percent. In India, this underreporting is compounded by deeply embedded social stigma, cultural norms of masculinity that conflate victimisation with weakness, and the legal system’s silence on male victimhood. Chanda Pranitha et al. (2025).
5.2 Forms of Male Sexual Victimisation
Male survivors of sexual violence experience a wide range of harm, including penetrative and non-penetrative sexual assault such as forced anal or oral penetration and non-consensual sexual touching; child sexual abuse involving young boys assaulted by family members, authority figures, or peers; workplace sexual harassment and coercion; intimate partner violence including physical and sexual abuse by female or male partners; and institutional abuse in schools, military settings, and custodial environments. The Indian legal system provides virtually no recognition or remedial framework for any of these forms of victimisation when the victim is male. Avni Bhatia (2025).
5.3 Psychological and Social Consequences
Research in forensic medicine and psychology has established that male survivors of sexual assault suffer significant psychological trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. The law’s denial of male victimhood compounds this harm by generating a secondary victimisation — a legal erasure that tells survivors that their experience is not legally cognisable, not worthy of protection, and not “real” sexual violence. Sunil K. Murmu et al., An Analysis of Psychological Perceptions of Survivors of Sexual Assault, Cureus (2023).
For male survivors, the societal expectation of masculine stoicism — and the cultural coding of victimisation as a feminine experience — creates additional barriers to disclosure and help-seeking. The silence around male victimhood is not merely incidental to the legal structure; it is produced by it. Chanda Pranitha et al. (2025).
6. Barriers to Justice for Male Survivors
6.1 Systemic Legal Barriers
The most fundamental obstacle to justice for male survivors is the law itself. Because men are excluded from the definition of rape, a man who has been subjected to non-consensual penetrative sexual acts has no avenue for recourse under the rape provisions. Prosecutors cannot charge rape, courts cannot convict for rape, and male survivors cannot assert any legal right to be protected from rape.
The now-repealed Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalised “unnatural offences,” was occasionally used to prosecute non-consensual male-on-male sexual acts, albeit imperfectly and with significant collateral consequences for consensual same-sex activity. Following the constitutional challenge in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018) and the eventual removal of Section 377 from the BNS, even this inadequate remedy has disappeared, leaving non-female survivors of sexual violence without any statutory framework. Happy Kumari & Mayur Mahajan (2025).
6.2 Institutional and Investigative Failures
Even within the limited legal space that does exist, law enforcement agencies demonstrate significant institutional bias in handling reports of male sexual victimisation. Police officers, trained to conceptualise rape as a crime committed by men against women, frequently respond to reports of male victimisation with scepticism, ridicule, or dismissal. Male victims who have approached police stations have reported experiences of disbelief, mockery, and challenges to their masculinity. Avni Bhatia (2025).
Forensic and medical professionals also lack adequate training and protocols for examining male victims of sexual assault. The evidentiary focus on vaginal and anal injury in the context of female victimisation has not been consistently or comprehensively extended to male victims, resulting in inadequate evidence collection that further undermines the prospect of successful prosecution. Niharika Sehgal & Bhawna Arora, Admissibility of Medical Forensic Reports in Sexual Offences, International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (2025).
6.3 Social and Cultural Stigma
The prevailing social understanding of sexual violence remains profoundly gendered. Men are culturally constructed as perpetrators of sexual violence, not as its potential victims. This construction runs so deep that male survivors frequently struggle to name their own experiences as sexual assault. Many internalise the cultural message that because they are male, they should have been able to resist; and because they did not physically resist, they must have consented. Chanda Pranitha et al. (2025).
Fear of being perceived as weak, emasculated, or assumed to be homosexual (even where the assault was heterosexual in nature) deters many male survivors from reporting or seeking support. These barriers operate at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and power, producing a climate of silence in which male victimhood remains largely invisible. Ajay Kumar, Legal Recognition and Protection for Male Victims of Harassment, Research Review International Journal of Multidisciplinary (2025).
7. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023: Promises and Failures
7.1 The Promise of Modernisation
The introduction of the BNS was presented as a thoroughgoing modernisation of India’s criminal justice system — an opportunity to shed archaic provisions, incorporate contemporary values, and bring Indian law into line with international best practice. Section 63, the new rape provision, was held up as an improvement in part because it extended the definition to include penetration by objects. Riya Gulati, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, Brazilian Journal of Law, Technology and Innovation (2025).
However, the BNS’s retention of a gender-specific definition of rape represents a failure to deliver on the promise of comprehensive modernisation. The legislation explicitly set aside the Justice Verma Committee’s recommendation for gender-neutral rape laws, despite sustained advocacy from scholars and civil society organisations for precisely such a reform. Arushi Bajpai & Akash Gupta (2025).
7.2 Continued Exclusion Under the BNS
Section 63 of the BNS defines rape as sexual intercourse or sexual acts committed by a man with a woman without her consent. This provision continues to exclude adult male and non-binary victims from legal recognition. For male survivors, the BNS does not represent reform but retrenchment — a deliberate decision to perpetuate their legal exclusion. Happy Kumari & Mayur Mahajan (2025).
The legislation’s failure to address gender equality is particularly stark when viewed alongside its other progressive provisions. The BNS introduced new offences relating to sexual harassment, stalking, and voyeurism — yet even these provisions retain gendered language that implies only women can be harassed or stalked. Riya Gulati (2025). The cumulative effect is a legal framework that, despite its modernising aspirations, continues to operate within a rigidly gendered understanding of sexual violence.
8. Comparative Legal Frameworks: Learning from Global Models
8.1 Gender-Neutral Approaches in Common Law Jurisdictions
Several jurisdictions have moved toward gender-neutral definitions of sexual assault, recognising that sexual violence is not inherently gendered. Canada, notably, abolished the specific offence of rape in 1983 and replaced it with a gender-neutral offence of sexual assault, defined by reference to intentional touching of a sexual nature without consent. Wan Hamzi Helmi Wan Helmi et al., Reforming Gendered Rape Definitions: A Comparative Doctrinal Analysis of Malaysia’s Penal Code and Canada’s Sexual Assault Framework, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (2026). This consent-based framework acknowledges that sexual violence can be perpetrated by any person against any other person, and that what the law cares about is the absence of consent, not the biological sex of the parties involved.
The United Kingdom adopted a similar approach through the Sexual Offences Act 2003, defining rape by reference to penetration without consent, and attaching principal liability to the act of penetration rather than to the gender of the perpetrator. This framework acknowledges that a woman can penetrate a man without consent, and that such an act constitutes sexual assault. Wan Hamzi Helmi Wan Helmi et al. (2026).
8.2 Lessons from Comparative Analysis
What comparative analysis makes clear is that gender-neutral rape laws do not diminish protections for women. Rather, they extend the reach of legal protection to all individuals regardless of gender. In jurisdictions that have adopted gender-neutral approaches, conviction rates for sexual assault have not declined, and the law’s protective function remains fully intact. What changes is not the protection afforded to women, but the recognition that sexual violence is a harm that can befall anyone. Wan Hamzi Helmi Wan Helmi et al. (2026).
Gender-neutral frameworks also align more coherently with contemporary understandings of consent and bodily autonomy. They recognise that consent is a universal principle that applies regardless of the gender of the parties involved, and that a person does not lose the right to refuse sexual activity merely by reason of entering into a marriage or relationship.
9. Constitutional Imperatives for Reform
9.1 Violation of Article 14: Right to Equality
The gender-specific definition of rape in the BNS is constitutionally untenable. Article 14 of the Indian Constitution guarantees to all persons equality before the law and equal protection of the laws. When the law reserves its protective scope for women alone, it creates a class of citizens — male victims of sexual assault — who are entirely denied equal protection. Avni Bhatia (2025).
The Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on Article 14 establishes that laws are liable to be struck down if they arbitrarily differentiate between persons who are similarly situated. A man subjected to non-consensual sexual acts is similarly situated to a woman subjected to non-consensual sexual acts in every legally and morally relevant respect: both have been violated; both have suffered grave injury to their bodily integrity; and both deserve legal recognition and protection. Yet the law treats them differently, extending protection to one and withholding it from the other. Avni Bhatia (2025).
9.2 Violation of Article 21: Right to Life and Personal Liberty
Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees the right to life and personal liberty to all persons. The Supreme Court has interpreted this provision broadly to encompass not merely the right to physical survival, but the right to live with dignity — including the right to bodily integrity and sexual autonomy. Happy Kumari & Mayur Mahajan (2025).
The legal denial of male victimhood in sexual assault undermines the right to bodily integrity guaranteed under Article 21. When a man is subjected to non-consensual sexual acts, his bodily integrity has been violated in precisely the same way as a woman’s. Yet the law denies him the recognition and the legal remedy that would acknowledge that violation. This denial is constitutionally indefensible.
9.3 Constitutional Morality and Evolving Standards
The Supreme Court has recognised, particularly in recent years, that constitutional interpretation must be responsive to evolving standards of human rights and equality. In Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, the Court articulated a principle of constitutional morality — the idea that the Constitution’s protections must keep pace with contemporary understandings of human rights and dignity. Akansha Mishra, Criminalisation of Marital Rape in India: Constitutional Morality and Legal Reform, Advanced International Journal for Research (2025).
Applying this principle to sexual offences law, it is clear that the continued exclusion of male victims from rape law sits in conflict with current human rights norms and with evolving understandings of sexual autonomy. International human rights bodies, including UN mechanisms, have consistently called for gender-neutral sexual assault laws that protect all individuals without distinction of gender. A constitutionally morality that is adequate to the present moment demands alignment with these norms.
10. Recommendations for Legal Reform
10.1 Statutory Reform: Gender-Neutral Definition of Sexual Assault
The most essential reform needed is an amendment to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita to adopt a gender-neutral definition of sexual assault. Rather than defining rape in terms of penetration by a male perpetrator of a female victim, the law should define sexual assault as any sexual penetration or sexual contact without the consent of the other person. Happy Kumari & Mayur Mahajan (2025).
Such a definition would achieve four distinct goals. First, it would acknowledge that both men and women are capable of perpetrating sexual violence. Second, it would recognise that men, women, and non-binary individuals can all be victims of sexual assault. Third, it would shift the law’s focus from the anatomical characteristics of the parties to the central question of consent. Fourth, it would bring criminal law into alignment with Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
10.2 Institutional Reform: Training and Capacity Building
Statutory reform alone is insufficient without corresponding institutional reform. Police officers, prosecutors, judges, forensic professionals, and legal aid practitioners all require specialised training on recognising, investigating, and prosecuting sexual violence against all victims, including male victims. Avni Bhatia (2025). This training must address the psychological impacts of sexual assault on male survivors; the specific barriers to reporting and help-seeking among male victims; appropriate forensic examination procedures; the distorting effects of gender stereotypes and toxic masculinity on perceptions of male victimhood; and trauma-informed approaches to interviewing male survivors.
10.3 Support Services and Victim Assistance
Comprehensive support services must be made available to male survivors of sexual assault. These should include specialised trauma-informed counselling tailored to the experiences of male survivors; access to medical services including sexual assault examinations, prophylaxis against sexually transmitted infections, and emergency contraception where applicable; legal assistance to navigate the criminal justice system; financial compensation through an expanded Compensation Scheme that includes male survivors (Parmod Sharma & Dr. Reetika Bansal, Victim Compensation in Sexual Offences: A Study of India’s Legal and Policy Framework, Lex Localis (2025)); and safe accommodation where necessary.
10.4 Awareness and Prevention
Public awareness campaigns should be designed and funded to communicate that sexual violence can affect anyone, and that support is available to all survivors. Such campaigns should specifically address the experiences of male survivors and work to reduce the social stigma that surrounds male victimhood. Educational programmes in schools and workplaces should address consent, bodily autonomy, and the reality of sexual violence in all its forms.
Prevention programmes should challenge the norms of toxic masculinity that both produce sexual violence and silence its male victims. This requires questioning the cultural assumption that masculinity demands dominance or sexual aggression, and promoting healthier and more inclusive understandings of male identity.
11. Conclusion
India’s law of sexual offences, as embodied in the Indian Penal Code and carried forward through the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, operates within a rigidly gendered framework that excludes men as potential victims of sexual violence. That exclusion is not accidental; it is structural, written into the statutory definition of rape itself. The result is a legal system that fails to recognise or protect the bodily autonomy and sexual integrity of male survivors of sexual assault.
This legal failure is constitutionally untenable. It violates Article 14’s guarantee of equality before the law and Article 21’s protection of the right to life and personal liberty. It runs counter to contemporary human rights norms and to evolving understandings of sexual autonomy. And most fundamentally, it denies to an entire class of victimised persons the legal recognition and remedial framework that would acknowledge what has been done to them and facilitate their access to justice.
Reforming sexual offences law to adopt a gender-neutral framework is not simply a matter of justice for male survivors. It is a matter of constitutional integrity and principled legal reasoning. A legal system that purports to protect the bodily autonomy of all persons cannot confine that protection to women alone. The doctrine of consent, properly understood, is universal in its application.
The task before India’s lawmakers and courts is to align the law of sexual offences with the constitutional values the nation has affirmed. This means moving beyond the gendered framework inherited from colonial jurisprudence and adopting a legal approach centred on consent, bodily integrity, and human dignity — values that recognise the equal moral worth and equal legal entitlement of all persons, regardless of gender.
The voices of male survivors have long been absent from India’s legal conversation about sexual violence. Their silence is not incidental to the law; it is produced by it. The case for reform is clear, the constitutional mandate is compelling, and the time to act is now.
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Author : Laveena Gupta
Institution: Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management Studies, Department of Law, Rohini, Delhi 110086
