India ruling on child marriage

INDIA’S top court has ruled that having sexual intercourse with a wife under the age of 18 is rape, a decision that activists have hailed as an important step towards ending child marriages.

Indian law says a woman must be at least 18 to marry and consent to sex, but there are exceptions and a man was permitted to have sex, even forcibly, with a girl as young as 15, as long as she was his wife.

The Supreme Court in New Delhi ruled on Wednesday that sexual intercourse with a girl younger than 18 is rape.