Stealthing Should Be Criminalised In India

Lokendra Singh Rathore, Jaipur National University (Seedling School of Law and Governance)

Introduction

Why it is called stealthing?

It is the new term refers to the practice of removal of condom during intercourse that is happen when men remove the protection without the consent of women.

“Stealthing” is a form of sexual violation that sounds as deceptive and dangerous as it actually is. Many of the people is not familiar with the term in India, it’s when a man who is having consensual sex and has agreed to wear a condom takes the condom off, without his partner’s consent, immediately before or during intercourse. It has expanded to include similar acts of messing with contraception without consent. For example, poking holes in a condom is an act of stealthing. Telling someone that you are taking birth control when you are not, with the intention of ‘trapping’ someone into conceiving, can also be considered under this term.

The term stealthing first came to light when Alexandra Brodsky published an article about the practice in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law in 2017, although the term had been used in the gay community since 2014. The consequences of stealthing can be severe, including unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and negative psychological outcomes. Many have argued that stealthing is a form of sexual assault or rape because it violates consent.