Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha regarding the government's stand on criminalising marital rape, Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi stated that marital rape laws cannot be "suitably applied in the Indian context". The minister cited various factors such as "level of education/ illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament, etc" as justification for continued immunity to perpetrators of marital rape.