Digital Desk: A sex racket involving "couple swapping" has been exposed thanks to a recent police complaint made in a small village in Kerala's Kottayam district.
Indian couples looking for sexual companions can find them in the DMs of Messenger, Telegram, and Twitter. A fast search on Facebook or a check through the classified ads' "Casual Encounters" section reveals a plethora of results, demonstrating that the practice, like open marriages and polyamory, has found a place in Indian society.
However, group sex can rapidly become dangerous. Couple-swapping can also entail forcing a spouse or partner to sleep with someone else against their choice, like in the case of Kerala, which has given new light to the state's sex-related crimes.
A 27-year-old woman from Karukachal town filed an FIR against her husband on January 9 for forcing her to have sex with many guys in a 'wife-swap.' She claimed that posing as family friends, couples would come to their house for sex, and that her husband took money from single males who would sleep with her. Her husband and eight other men were charged with gang rape, unnatural intercourse, bribery, criminal intimidation, and aiding and abetting.
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Couple swapping in Kerala may appear fresh and shocking, but human rights lawyer Sandhya Raju says situations like the one in Karukachal town aren't new — it's only that this one went public.
While Changanassery police claim they have never encountered a case of forced couple-swapping, lawyer Sandhya Raju claims it is far more prevalent than most people believe.
Sandhya defended a 19-year-old client in 2016 who had a similar experience: her aggressive husband would frequently urge that they leave their ancestral house and go to Kakkanad, Kochi. She wouldn't have to do anything other than "satisfy the visitors." This was the final straw for her mother, who advised her to file a domestic abuse complaint against her husband and apply for a protective order.
"These cases are viewed as either a husband-wife problem or a domestic violence problem. "It's looked at in such a myopic way that the greater issue of marital rape or sexual assault is overlooked," the attorney added.
A complaint was also submitted in 2013 by the wife of a navy officer at the Kochi police station, alleging cases of forced wife-swapping in the Indian Navy. According to reports, senior navy officers would order their subordinates to swap wives.
However, the Karukachal case, with all of the attention it has received in the media, has the potential to bring about some change. Hence, the necessity of portraying this case as one of assault against women, according to Sandhya and Shilpa Dyavaiah (Kottayam police chief). It would be significant because the case was dubbed "The Husband Who Made His Wife Visible to Many, a Startling Secret" from the start.
The case was immediately dubbed a "wife-swapping scandal" by the media. "Will husbands be willing to share their wives?" "Could all of this be happening in Kerala?" a report inquires, delving into the psychology of swinging.
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