aameghIPC and BNS for women, explained simply
Understand stalking, harassment, abuse, dowry demands and other women’s rights in simple words. Each explanation includes an official law link.
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- 14 September 2026
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UNDERSTAND YOUR RIGHTS · INDIA
Find the situation you want to understand.
Unwanted contact, abuse at home, threats or problems at work: read what the law says in simple words, then follow the official link for the full details.
IPC is the older criminal code. BNS replaced it from 1 July 2024. Older incidents may still come under the IPC, even if you report them now. We show both references so you can recognise a number you have heard or seen.
Use a few words or a section number. Please leave names and personal case details out of the search.
Each explanation includes an official source. You can also open “Possible punishment” below a topic. Those ranges come from the BNS; older IPC penalties may differ. A court decides the sentence in a case.
Someone grabs or attacks you in a sexual or degrading way
Grabbing a woman’s body or using force to sexually humiliate her can fall under this law. It also covers an assault that makes her fear such force is about to be used. The person’s intention, or what they knew their act was likely to do, matters.
The law calls this “outraging modesty”. That phrase does not mean a woman has to dress or behave a certain way to deserve protection.
Possible punishment
1 to 5 years in prison, and a fine.
Unwanted sexual touching, demands or comments
A man touches you while making unwanted sexual advances, asks you for sexual favours, shows you pornography against your will, or makes sexual remarks. These are forms of sexual harassment covered by this law. For example, a demand for sex in return for a promotion can be sexual harassment.
This law can apply outside work too. At work, you may also have a complaint route under the POSH Act, explained below.
Possible punishment
For the first three forms: up to 3 years of prison with hard labour, a fine, or both. For sexually coloured remarks: up to 1 year, a fine, or both.
Someone tries to force you to remove your clothes
This law covers attacking a woman or using force to strip her or make her naked. It also covers helping someone carry out that attack. The intention to remove her clothes matters, even if the attacker does not succeed.
The older IPC wording named a male attacker. The BNS wording can apply to any person who carries out or helps the attack.
Possible punishment
3 to 7 years in prison, and a fine.
Someone watches, records or shares your private moments
This is called voyeurism. It can include secretly watching or filming a woman using a toilet, changing in private, or having sex where she expects privacy. Sharing a recording of such a private act can also be an offence.
Saying yes to a recording is not the same as agreeing to it being shared. BNS can apply to an offender of any gender; the older IPC wording referred to a man.
Possible punishment
First conviction: 1 to 3 years and a fine. A later conviction: 3 to 7 years and a fine.
Someone keeps following or contacting you: stalking
If a man keeps following you or trying to contact you after you have clearly shown you are not interested, this can be stalking. The law also covers a man monitoring a woman’s internet, email or other electronic communication.
For example, repeatedly following you home and trying to start a conversation after you have refused contact may fall here. The law has exceptions for certain lawful duties and conduct that is proved reasonable and justified.
Possible punishment
First conviction: up to 3 years and a fine. A later conviction: up to 5 years and a fine.
Sexual insults, gestures or intrusion into your privacy
Someone directs words, sounds, gestures or displayed objects at a woman intending to sexually insult or degrade her. Intruding into her privacy with that intention can also fall under this law.
The law uses the word “modesty”. The person’s intention matters: an ordinary argument or accidental intrusion is not automatically this offence.
Possible punishment
Up to 3 years of prison without hard labour, and a fine.
Someone publishes a sexual-assault survivor’s identity
A person’s name, photo, address or other identifying details should not be published when they are the victim of one of the sexual offences listed in this law. The protection also applies while an allegation is being investigated.
A post can identify someone without naming them, for example through a photo and workplace details. There are narrow legal exceptions, and children have additional privacy protection.
Possible punishment
Up to 2 years in prison, and a fine.
Sharing details of a sexual-offence court case
Publishing what happens in court in the sexual-offence cases covered here generally needs the court’s permission first. This protects people from having sensitive proceedings circulated publicly.
The rule has an exception for publishing High Court and Supreme Court judgments. The separate rules protecting the survivor’s identity still matter.
Possible punishment
Up to 2 years in prison, and a fine.
Sex without a woman’s free agreement: rape and consent
Rape includes the sexual acts listed in the law when a woman has not freely agreed. Agreement obtained through threats is not free consent. A woman who is unable to understand or communicate consent cannot give it, and a girl under 18 cannot legally consent to these acts.
Not fighting back does not mean agreement. BNS 63 contains a marital exception for a wife aged 18 or over; forced sex during separation and domestic sexual abuse are explained separately below.
Punishment for rape, including abuse of trust or authority
This law sets the punishment for rape. It also lists especially serious situations, such as a police officer abusing custody or a person abusing a position of trust. Rape involving a woman with a disability or causing certain serious injuries is also covered by the stricter rules.
The exact punishment depends on which part of the law applies and what the court finds proved.
Possible punishment
Section 64(1): 10 years to life, and a fine. Section 64(2): at least 10 years of prison with hard labour, extending to the remainder of natural life, and a fine.
Rape of a girl under 16
The law sets a higher minimum prison term when a girl who is raped is under 16. This is an additional age-based protection; it does not mean girls aged 16 or 17 can legally consent to sex.
POCSO protects children under 18 as well. The older IPC provision for girls under 16 was added in 2018.
Possible punishment
20 years to the remainder of natural life, and a fine for the victim’s medical expenses and rehabilitation.
Rape of a girl under 12
Rape of a girl under 12 carries a particularly severe punishment. The court can impose a long prison term, imprisonment for the rest of the person’s life, or a death sentence under this provision.
A death sentence is a possible punishment, not an automatic one. The older IPC provision was added in 2018.
Possible punishment
20 years to the remainder of natural life with a fine, or death. The section directs the fine towards the victim’s medical expenses and rehabilitation.
A rape causes death or a lasting loss of awareness
This law deals with an injury during rape that causes the woman’s death or leaves her in a persistent vegetative state. That medical term describes a condition in which a person has no signs of awareness despite periods of wakefulness.
The injury during the rape must have caused that outcome. Medical evidence is important.
Possible punishment
20 years to the remainder of natural life, or death.
A husband forces sex while his wife is living separately
If a husband has sex with his wife without her consent while they are living separately, this law can apply. She does not need a court order of separation for this protection.
Marriage does not remove this separate protection during separation. A woman experiencing sexual abuse at home may also seek protection under the Domestic Violence Act.
Possible punishment
2 to 7 years in prison, and a fine.
Someone uses a position of power to obtain sex
This law covers a person who misuses authority or trust to get a woman to have sex. It includes certain people in charge of hospitals, care institutions or custody. It applies to the situations listed in the law where the act does not meet the legal definition of rape.
If the act does amount to rape, the rape laws need to be considered instead. A position of power can make it harder for someone to refuse or seek help.
Possible punishment
5 to 10 years of prison with hard labour, and a fine.
Someone uses a deliberate lie or false marriage promise to obtain sex
This law can apply when a man obtains sex through the kinds of deception it lists. One example is promising marriage when he never intends to marry. False promises of a job or promotion, and marriage after hiding identity, are also mentioned.
A relationship ending does not by itself prove this crime. The promise must have been dishonest from the start. This BNS offence deals with acts that do not amount to rape.
Possible punishment
Up to 10 years in prison, and a fine.
Rape by people acting together
If people act together to commit a rape, each person in that group can be held responsible for gang rape. A person does not have to carry out every physical act to be responsible under this rule.
There must be evidence that the people acted as a group or with a shared plan. Simply being nearby is not the same as taking part.
Possible punishment
20 years to the remainder of natural life, and a fine directed to the victim’s medical expenses and rehabilitation.
Gang rape of a girl under 18
When people act together to rape a girl under 18, the BNS provides a stricter punishment. The court can impose imprisonment for the rest of the person’s life or a death sentence.
Older IPC provisions used two age groups: under 16 and under 12. BNS combines them into a wider under-18 rule, so the old and new section numbers are not exact copies.
Possible punishment
The remainder of natural life with a fine, or death. The fine is directed to the victim’s medical expenses and rehabilitation.
A person convicted of rape commits another listed sexual offence
The law provides a much higher punishment for a person who has already been convicted of one of the listed rape offences and is convicted again of a listed offence.
This rule requires earlier and later convictions. Several complaints or allegations alone are not the same as repeat convictions.
Possible punishment
The remainder of natural life, or death.
A woman dies after abuse over dowry demands
This law concerns a woman who dies from burns, injury or other unnatural causes within seven years of marriage. Soon before her death, her husband or his relative must have abused or harassed her over a dowry demand. When those conditions are met, it is called dowry death.
The connection between the dowry demand, abuse and death matters. A death within seven years of marriage alone is not enough.
Possible punishment
7 years to life in prison.
A man tricks a woman into believing they are already married
A man deceives a woman into believing she is legally married to him when she is not. Because she believes this, she lives with him or has sex with him. This law addresses that deception.
This is about pretending a marriage already exists. A promise to marry in the future is a different question.
Possible punishment
Up to 10 years in prison, and a fine.
Someone marries again while still legally married
This is commonly called bigamy. It can be an offence to marry another person while an existing spouse is alive, if the new marriage is invalid because the earlier marriage still exists.
Marriage rules and personal law matter. There are limited exceptions, including a former marriage declared invalid by a court and a qualifying seven-year absence with disclosure to the new spouse.
Possible punishment
Up to 7 years in prison, and a fine.
Someone hides an existing marriage from a new spouse
A person commits the bigamy offence and also hides their existing marriage from the new spouse. The law provides a higher punishment for that concealment.
This concerns an existing marriage, not simply failing to mention an earlier relationship.
Possible punishment
Up to 10 years in prison, and a fine.
Someone stages a marriage ceremony they know is not valid
Someone goes through a wedding ceremony dishonestly, knowing it does not make them legally married. This law deals with that deliberate fraud.
A mistake in paperwork or a later dispute over marriage validity does not by itself show that the ceremony was a fraud.
Possible punishment
Up to 7 years in prison, and a fine.
Taking or keeping a married woman away for a sexual purpose
This law concerns someone who takes, lures, hides or keeps a married woman away intending that she have sex outside her marriage. The person must know, or have reason to believe, that she is married. The law calls the intended relationship “illicit intercourse”.
It is different from cruelty under IPC 498A and from the old adultery offence. A woman’s own choice of partner is not, by itself, proof that someone committed this offence.
Possible punishment
Up to 2 years in prison, a fine, or both.
Serious abuse by a husband or his relatives: cruelty
If your husband or his relatives deliberately put your physical or mental health in grave danger, this law may apply. It also covers harassment to force you or your family to give money, property or valuables unlawfully. For example, threatening or hurting you because your family has not met such a demand can fall here.
The law calls this cruelty. The Domestic Violence Act, explained below, also offers ways to ask a court for protection, housing-related help and financial support.
Possible punishment
Up to 3 years in prison, and a fine.
Someone takes or forces you away to make you marry or have sex
This law can apply when a woman is kidnapped or taken away so that she will be made to marry against her will or be sexually exploited. It also covers certain threats or misuse of power used to make her leave a place for that sexual purpose.
A family’s approval does not replace an adult woman’s own choice about marriage.
Possible punishment
Up to 10 years in prison, and a fine.
Someone lures a child into sexual exploitation
Someone persuades or tricks a child into going somewhere or doing something, intending or knowing that the child will be drawn into sexual activity with another person. This law deals with arranging that exploitation, not only carrying out the sexual act.
The IPC version covered girls under 18. BNS protects any child under 18 through this provision.
Possible punishment
Up to 10 years in prison, and a fine.
Bringing a girl or boy into India for sexual exploitation
Someone brings a girl under 21, or a boy under 18, into India from another country intending or knowing that they will be sexually exploited by another person. This can fall under this law even if the exploitation is planned for later.
The age limit for a girl here is 21. The older IPC provision covered girls; BNS also includes boys under 18.
Possible punishment
Up to 10 years in prison, and a fine.
Someone tricks, transports or holds a person to exploit them
This is human trafficking. For example, someone may use a false job offer to move a woman and then force her into sexual exploitation or unpaid servitude. The law covers recruiting, moving, hiding or receiving people for exploitation through force, threats, deception or misuse of power.
Exploitation can include forced begging or organ removal. A person agreeing to travel does not excuse trafficking. The legal test does not depend on the victim’s consent.
Possible punishment
The basic offence carries 7 to 10 years of prison with hard labour and a fine. Multiple victims, children, repeat child trafficking and involvement of public officials attract higher punishments under subsections (3)–(7).
Sexually exploiting someone known to have been trafficked
A person uses someone for sexual exploitation while knowing, or having good reason to believe, that they were trafficked. They can be responsible even if they did not arrange the trafficking themselves.
The law sets a higher minimum punishment when the person being exploited is a child.
Possible punishment
For a child: 5 to 10 years of prison with hard labour and a fine. For the other provision: 3 to 7 years of prison with hard labour and a fine.
Selling or hiring out a child for sexual exploitation
Someone sells, hires out or hands over a child knowing or intending that the child will be used for prostitution or another unlawful sexual or immoral purpose. This law addresses the person who supplies the child.
The planned exploitation does not have to happen immediately. Child-protection laws such as POCSO may apply too.
Possible punishment
Up to 10 years in prison, and a fine.
Buying or hiring a child for sexual exploitation
Someone buys, hires or takes control of a child knowing or intending that the child will be used for prostitution or another unlawful sexual or immoral purpose. This law addresses the person who obtains the child.
The BNS prison term is higher than the term in the older IPC provision.
Possible punishment
7 to 14 years in prison, and a fine.
Repeatedly buying, selling or dealing in people as slaves
This law addresses a person who regularly deals in people as if they are property to be bought or sold. It also covers regularly moving people as part of that slavery trade.
It protects women, men and children. Trafficking and forced-labour laws may apply to the same exploitation.
Someone forces you to work against your will
You are unlawfully made to work even though you do not agree to do so. This can include work in a home, farm, factory or elsewhere. The law protects people against forced labour.
Forcing someone to work is different from an ordinary disagreement about a job. Bonded-labour laws may also matter where debt is used to keep someone working.
Possible punishment
Up to 1 year in prison, a fine, or both.
Someone unlawfully ends a pregnancy
This law punishes deliberately causing a miscarriage outside the legal exceptions. It also refers to a woman causing her own miscarriage. It does not mean all abortions are illegal: the MTP Act allows abortion when its medical and legal conditions are met.
The section also has an exception for an act done in good faith to save the woman’s life. A qualified doctor can explain the lawful healthcare options.
Someone ends your pregnancy without your consent
Someone deliberately causes a miscarriage without the pregnant woman agreeing. For example, secretly giving her a substance to end her pregnancy can fall under this law.
A husband or family member agreeing does not replace the woman’s own consent for this offence.
Possible punishment
Life in prison, or up to 10 years in prison, and a fine.
An attempt to cause a miscarriage kills the woman
Someone acts to cause a miscarriage and the woman dies because of that act. This law can apply even if the person did not realise the act could kill her.
The punishment can be more severe when the act was done without her consent.
Possible punishment
Up to 10 years and a fine; where the act was without consent, life in prison is also an available punishment.
An act before birth is intended to kill the child
Someone acts before a child is born, intending to stop the child being born alive or to cause death after birth, and that result follows. This law deals with that deliberate act.
There is an exception for an act done in good faith to save the mother’s life. Lawful abortion under the MTP Act must be considered separately.
Possible punishment
Up to 10 years in prison, a fine, or both.
A dangerous attack causes the death of an unborn child
This law can apply to a life-threatening act against a pregnant woman that kills the unborn child, even if the woman survives. The act must be serious enough that causing a person’s death through it would amount to unlawful killing.
The section uses the old term “quick unborn child”. Its meaning needs medical and legal assessment; it is not a fixed pregnancy-week limit for abortion.
Possible punishment
Up to 10 years in prison, and a fine.
A parent or carer abandons a child under 12
A parent or carer leaves a child under 12 with the intention of giving up care completely. This law addresses exposing or leaving the child in that way.
Leaving a child in danger is different from using the lawful child-surrender process. For help involving a child, contact official Child Helpline 1098.
Possible punishment
Up to 7 years in prison, a fine, or both.
Secretly disposing of a child’s body to hide a birth
Someone secretly buries or otherwise disposes of a child’s dead body to hide the fact that the child was born. The child may have died before, during or after birth.
This is about hiding a birth by disposing of a body. It does not make keeping pregnancy information private a crime.
Possible punishment
Up to 2 years in prison, a fine, or both.
Someone uses a child to commit a crime
Someone hires, employs or uses a child under 18 to commit a crime. The law also expressly covers using a child for sexual exploitation or pornography.
If the child carries out the crime, the person using the child can also face the punishment for that crime. This is a new standalone BNS provision.
Possible punishment
3 to 10 years in prison and a fine, with the additional punishment described where the offence is committed.
Taking a child under 10 to steal something they are carrying
Someone kidnaps or abducts a child under 10 intending to steal property from the child, such as jewellery the child is wearing. This law targets taking the child for that purpose.
Other kidnapping laws can apply when the child is older or the purpose is different.
Possible punishment
Up to 7 years in prison, and a fine.
An acid attack causes burns or other serious injury
An attacker uses acid intending to cause serious harm, or knowing that harm is likely, and causes burns, disfigurement, disability or other serious injury. This law provides punishment for that attack.
The court must set a reasonable fine towards the victim’s medical expenses and pay it to the victim. Hospitals also have an immediate free-treatment duty for acid-attack injuries covered by the law.
Possible punishment
10 years to life in prison, and a fine.
Someone throws or tries to use acid to injure you
An attacker throws acid or tries to throw or give it to someone, intending to burn, disfigure or seriously injure them. This law can apply even when the intended injury does not happen.
An unsuccessful attack can still be a serious crime. You do not have to wait for an injury before seeking emergency help.
Possible punishment
5 to 7 years in prison, and a fine.
Someone kills or attempts to kill a woman
Murder and attempted-murder laws protect women too. An attack intended to kill someone can be an attempted murder even when the person survives. Violence over a rejected relationship or family opposition is still assessed under these laws.
Whether an attack is murder, attempted murder or another offence depends on what the person did and intended, and the legal exceptions.
Someone deliberately encourages or helps a suicide
The law calls this abetment of suicide. It concerns deliberately pushing, encouraging or helping someone to take their own life. There is a separate provision when the person who dies is a child or belongs to the other protected groups listed in the law.
A suicide after an argument does not by itself prove that another person committed this crime. For immediate danger call 112; Tele-MANAS offers mental-health support on 14416.
Someone hits, injures or seriously harms you
Hitting someone and causing pain or injury can be an offence. The law has stricter rules for certain serious injuries, such as broken bones or loss of eyesight, and for attacks using dangerous weapons or means.
“Grievous hurt” is the legal term for the listed serious injuries. These protections can apply to violence at home as well as outside.
Someone unlawfully blocks your way or locks you in
Wrongful restraint means stopping you from going somewhere you have a right to go. Wrongful confinement means keeping you within limits you cannot leave, such as locking you in a room without lawful authority.
Holding someone for longer, hiding the confinement or using it to force a demand can lead to more serious charges.
Someone takes, tricks or holds a person away from safety
These laws cover different forms of kidnapping and abduction. Examples include taking a child from a lawful guardian without permission, forcing or tricking someone into leaving a place, or holding someone for ransom. Knowingly hiding a kidnapped person is also covered.
For kidnapping from guardianship, BNS treats anyone under 18 as a child. The older IPC threshold was under 16 for boys and under 18 for girls. An adult choosing to leave is a different matter.
Someone threatens you to frighten or control you
A person threatens to harm you, someone you care about, your reputation or your property to frighten you or force you to act. For example, threatening to hurt you unless you withdraw a complaint may be criminal intimidation.
Threats of death or serious injury, and threats sent while hiding the sender’s identity, have additional punishment rules.
Someone uses threats to make you give money or property
This is extortion. For example, someone threatens to publish intimate pictures unless you pay them. The offence involves using fear to dishonestly make someone hand over money, property or certain valuable documents.
The law also covers certain attempts and more serious threats. A demand for something other than property may involve another offence.
Someone dishonestly keeps or misuses property entrusted to them
You give someone property to keep or use for an agreed purpose, and they dishonestly keep, spend or use it against that trust. Lawyers call this criminal breach of trust. It may be relevant when someone refuses to return a woman’s own jewellery or other stridhan entrusted to them.
Stridhan means property that belongs to the woman. The question is who owns it, who was entrusted with it and whether they acted dishonestly.
Possible punishment
The general BNS offence carries up to 5 years in prison, a fine, or both. Other entrusted roles have separate punishments.
Obscene acts or words in a public place
This law concerns obscene acts in public, or obscene songs or words in or near a public place, that annoy other people. It may be relevant to some public sexual behaviour.
The location, conduct and annoyance matter. Targeted sexual remarks or gestures against a woman may also fall under the harassment laws above.
Defending yourself or someone else from an attack
The law recognises a right to defend yourself, another person or property against certain unlawful attacks. This is called private defence. The right begins and ends with the danger described in the law.
The force used must stay within legal limits. Self-defence is not permission to take revenge after the danger has passed.
A police officer fails to record a complaint they must record
Public officials have legal duties when receiving and investigating complaints. This law punishes certain deliberate failures, including refusing to record information about the serious offences listed in it, such as rape and acid attacks.
The reporting rules below explain how to approach the Superintendent of Police or a Magistrate if recording is refused. This punishment provision names particular offences; it does not cover every disagreement at a police station.
Possible punishment
6 months to 2 years of prison with hard labour, and a fine.
A hospital refuses treatment it is legally required to give
Public and private hospitals must provide immediate first aid or treatment free of cost for the rape, acid-injury and child sexual-offence cases listed in the law. The person in charge can be punished for failing to provide that treatment.
The hospital must also inform police. This duty does not mean every later service or every kind of hospital visit is free.
Possible punishment
Up to 1 year in prison, a fine, or both.
An affair is no longer a crime under IPC 497
Adultery means a sexual relationship involving a married person outside their marriage. The Supreme Court struck down the old IPC adultery offence in 2018. BNS does not recreate that offence.
An affair may still matter in divorce or other marriage proceedings. It is different from marrying again while still married or committing cruelty.
Consenting adults are not criminals for private same-sex intimacy
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that IPC 377 could not criminalise private sexual acts between consenting adults. A same-sex relationship is not a crime just because both people are of the same sex.
The Court did not strike down every application of the section. It did not legalise non-consensual acts or sexual abuse of children. BNS has no direct equivalent to IPC 377.
Read the full official documents
Sources checked on 14 September 2026. This guide covers the BNS chapter on offences against women and children (sections 63–99), related offences and 11 other laws and protections. Other laws may also apply. For advice about your own situation, a legal-aid service or lawyer can help you check the current law.
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 — full text, India Code ↗Indian Penal Code, 1860 — older text, India Code ↗2013 changes to the criminal law — harassment, sexual violence and other offences ↗2018 changes to the criminal law — child rape and other offences ↗Official notification bringing the BNS into force ↗The older IPC PDF does not include all later changes. Read it with the 2013 and 2018 changes above and the relevant Supreme Court decisions. Each topic links to the BNS text or the court decision it explains.
Why do I see both IPC and BNS?
IPC stands for Indian Penal Code. It is the older law that defined crimes and their punishments in India. BNS stands for Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the law that replaced it from 1 July 2024. If something happened before that date, the IPC may still apply even when the complaint is made later.
- Tell the person helping you when the incident happened. If the abuse continued over several dates, explain that too.
- The original notification brought the BNS into force except section 106(2). That exception concerns certain fatal road accidents; it does not postpone the women’s protections explained here. BNS section 358 explains how older cases and offences are preserved.
What does a section number tell me?
A section is a numbered part of a law. For example, IPC 498A deals with serious abuse or certain harassment by a husband or his relatives. In the BNS, sections 85 and 86 deal with that subject. The number helps you find the rule; the explanation helps you understand what it covers.
- Search by the problem you are facing, such as stalking or dowry demands, if you do not know a number.
- Include the name of the law when writing a number: BNS 75 means something different from IPC 75.
- Some BNS rules changed or are new. Each explanation points out differences that matter.
What should I know about consent and marriage?
Consent means freely agreeing to a particular sexual act. Being married, having agreed before or not physically fighting back does not tell you whether someone agreed this time. The criminal law nevertheless has a marital exception: BNS 63 excludes sexual acts by a man with his wife if she is 18 or older. Forced sex while spouses live separately is covered by BNS 67. Sexual abuse is also recognised under the Domestic Violence Act.
- The rape provision treats sex with a girl under 18 as rape even if she appears to agree. Older IPC PDFs may show age 15 in the marital exception; a 2017 Supreme Court ruling changed that threshold to 18.
- If you are experiencing sexual abuse in a marriage, you can ask a legal-aid service about protection and the options that apply to your situation.
Do the miscarriage offences make every abortion illegal?
No. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act allows abortion when its medical and legal conditions are met. The criminal offences about causing a miscarriage must be read alongside that Act. A registered medical practitioner can explain which healthcare options are available.
- For an adult woman who can legally give consent under the Act, her own consent is required; a husband’s consent is not required.
- The Act has different consent rules for someone under 18 and for the particular mental-illness category it defines. The MTP explanation above gives more detail.
Do I need to know the law before asking for help?
No. You can describe what happened in your own words. You do not need to choose an IPC or BNS section before asking the police or a legal-aid service for help. A lawyer can explain which rules fit your situation and what you can do next.
- If you are in immediate danger in India, call 112.
- For legal-aid information, call NALSA on 15100 or contact your District Legal Services Authority. Women are eligible to apply for free legal aid regardless of income.
- This page is for reading and finding help. Share case documents directly with the service assisting you, using its official contact route.
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