On the 31st of October, the Supreme Court ruled against the two-finger test. Although the test was banned in 2013, many states and hospitals still continued with their practice of the two-finger test. A few days ago, the Supreme Court announced that a person who is performing the two-finger test on a rape victim will be held accountable for misconduct.
What is the two-finger test?
The two-finger test which has been used in India for more than 20 years, is a practice in which two fingers are inserted into the vagina of a rape survivor to see if the hymen is broken or not and also to check the laxity of the vagina. This test is allegedly done to prove if a woman or girl is a virgin or not. And also if the person is habituated to sex.
The result of this test is often used to cast doubt on rape victims, portraying them as liars or stating that rape hasn’t harmed their vagina and that they are used to sex.
Back in 2013, the Supreme Court declared the two-finger test unconstitutional, saying that the test “violates the right of rape survivors to privacy, physical and mental integrity and dignity.”
Later in march of 2014 India’s Ministry of Health issued Guidelines stating, “Per-Vaginum examination commonly referred to by laypersons as ‘two-finger test’, must not be conducted for establishing rape/sexual violence and the size of the vaginal introitus has no bearing on a case of sexual violence. Per vaginum examination can be done only in adult women when medically indicated.”
This test has been said to be “insensitive and retraumatizing” for rape victims.
9 years after the test was banned, many places across India still practice it to determine if a person has been raped or not. Even medical books stated the two-finger test as a virginity test till August of 2021 when it was proved to be unscientific. Medical professionals and teachers were asked not to teach the two-finger test and even question the courts if they were ever to order the test.
The recent ruling clears out that a person’s sexual history has nothing to do with her rape case. Stating, “the two-finger test is based on the incorrect assumption that a sexually active woman cannot be raped…a woman’s sexual history is wholly immaterial while adjudicating whether the accused raped her.”
This ruling is also important because this time around the Supreme Court isn't just banning the test, they are also holding anyone who performs it punishable, sending out a message to all the medical professionals who continue to practise this test in the name of medicine and the courts who still order this test.
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