No, virginity tests are not legal in India. The Supreme Court of India has explicitly banned the two-finger test, which is often used to determine virginity, as it is considered unscientific, invasive and violates the dignity and privacy of the individual.
If you don’t know what a virginity test is or what it actually means? Well, this test is usually done to determine if a woman or girl has ever engaged in sexual relations, sounds weird, right? The “two-finger test” is one of the commonly used procedures where a doctor inserts two fingers into the woman’s vaginal canal to check for the presence of a hymen (the thin piece of tissue). And just like India, there are many nations around the globe that believe that women’s value is based on whether they are virgins or not, which is completely wrong. And to be honest, this test is more like a disrespect than an actual medical test, and that’s the very reason why it is banned in India.
What Does Law And Supreme Court Say About Virginity Tests In India?
In India, it is the Supreme Court that has the last say in all matters, and it declared that the two-finger test is of course illegal. This is thus confirmation that it is contrary to the basic rights that each and every individual in India has, namely the right to live with dignity, and because this type of test is so disrespectful to the women involved, that’s why it is banned.
One landmark case that highlighted this issue was Lillu @ Rajesh & Anr vs State of Haryana. The Supreme Court ruled in this case that the two-finger test was a breach of the privacy and dignity of the rape victims. And sure, the court stressed that the method is to never be utilized for making assessments of a woman’s integrity or her prior sexual interactions. Not even a torn hymen test result would indicate that a woman consented to sex. That’s why, Article 21 of the Indian Constitution is, in particular, a guarantee of the right to a life of dignity for all. The courts in India have reiterated over and again that virginity tests, irrespective of whether they are conducted on rape victims or women held in police custody, violate this right.
What Do Doctors Say?
As a matter of fact though, even doctors and medical experts point out that Virginity tests do not have any scientific basis whatsoever. The presumption that usually goes around that the status of a woman’s virginity can be determined by the state of her hymen is a total myth. The hymen can tear for many reasons, like playing sports, and some women don’t even have a hymen at all, so how can the two-finger tests be 100% accurate? Yes, they aren’t accurate in most of the cases.
The Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) came to the conclusion that “Signs of Virginity,” tests that are not scientifically valid, should be removed from their medical courses. That assures that future doctors will not be taught that sex can be figured out through these tests. And with these steps taken by the doctors in India, medical institutions, and also the Supreme Court, we can say for sure that India is moving forward and breaking societal norms and we can see the evidence of that when India banned virginity tests.
