An Indian woman got her Tinder Date arrested for refusing marriage

• A Bengaluru techie was arrested after he refused to marry the girl.
  
• The woman filed a report accusing the man for luring her into having sex by promising a committed relationship.

“It’s a match” can be the most amusing words for Tinder users looking for a ‘hook-up’. However, it went horribly wrong for a Bengaluru techie who was arrested after he refused to marry the girl, reported Bangalore Mirror.

Rama Reddy, a 29-year-old employee of a tech firm in Bengaluru, started dating a woman after finding a match on Tinder. The two conitnued to date for a month before they reportedly decided to have sex. Things went sour, when Rama turned down the marriage proposal and broke up with his date hours after going physical.

After waiting for about a week, the woman finally filed a complaint at the Whitefield police station in Bengaluru on June 3. She accused the man for luring her into having sex by promising a committed relationship.

The man was immediately put behind bars since it is illegal to have sex on the pretext of marriage, a law that was recently upheld by the Supreme Court recently.

Earlier in April, the Supreme Court ruled that sex on the pretext of marriage is rape and a blow to the honour of a woman.

India not ready for Tinder?

Tinder knew well as it entered Asia’s largest market for internet users that ‘hook ups’ aren’t as widely accepted. The app had to change its story while marketing in India, where the society is still largely conservative in related to sexuality and physical relationships.

Government's crime data for 2016 showed 10,068 cases of rape by "known persons on promise to marry the victim". In 2015, that number was 7,655, the BBC reported.

“The hairsplitting manner of deciding these cases is a matter of grave concern. If it can be proved that the girl consented to sexual intercourse only after the promise of marriage, the case ends in conviction. But if she was romantically involved, and demanded marriage later, it has been held that it is not a case of “rape under promise of marriage”. The school dropout teenager from a poverty stricken background is expected to know the difference!” The Mumbai-based lawyer Flavia Agnes wrote a few years ago.

While at the outset it may seem outrageous to arrest a man for a broken relationship, the nuances of India’s societal structure makes the issue complicated.

However, as Agnes explained, a 2015 study conducted by Majlis, an non-governmental organisation (NGO), which provides support to survivors of sexual violence, found 74% of the victims were minors. Among the girls who were pregnant at the time of reporting, 31% were in the age group of 10-15 years, and 36% were 15-18 years. Most were school dropouts from poverty stricken backgrounds.

The point Agnes is driving home is India has a unique problem-- the rape law is the only recourse available to the poor and marginalised women who are exploited.

Nuances like these makes business tricky in India for dating apps like Tinder.

See also:

Breaking the promise of marriage after having sex is now considered rape in India