“The two-finger test has no scientific basis and is an invasive method of examining rape survivors… It instead re-victimises and re-traumatises women. The two-finger test must not be conducted,” said Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud as a Supreme Court bench, also including Justice Hima Kohli, banned the practice.
The Supreme Court bench added that “the test is based on an incorrect assumption that a sexually active woman cannot be raped. Nothing can be further from the truth”.
The top court also said that any person conducting such a test will be considered guilty of misconduct. Furthermore, it ordered the removal of two-finger test from study materials and medical books of the medical colleges as well.
In 2013, the top court had termed the method unconstitutional, but the practice continued without much deterrence.
Here’s why the two-finger test is not only illegal but also unethical and a violation of human rights.
What is the two-finger test?
Known as the PV (Per Vaginal), the two-finger test refers to an intrusive physical examination of a woman’s vagina to check if the hymen is intact or not.
It examines the laxity of vaginal muscles in order to determine if the woman has engaged in or has been subjected to sexual intercourse – a proof of virginity. If the fingers slide in easily, the woman is presumed to be sexually active and if the fingers fail to penetrate or find difficulty in penetrating, then it is presumed that she has her hymen intact, which is a proof of her being a virgin.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that the two-finger test cannot prove that a woman has had a vaginal intercourse or not. In fact, the United Nations and all its related agencies have called for a ban on this practice, calling it medically unnecessary, often times painful, humiliating and traumatic.
Why is the test problematic?
The two-finger test is regressive and sexist as it is based on the assumption that a woman who is sexually active is less likely to have been sexually assaulted.
Talking from a medical standpoint, Dr Jayashree, Professor of Community Medicine at the Government Medical College, Kannur was quoted as telling the News Minute, “The test is unscientific because the hymen can rupture due to several reasons other than sexual intercourse, including playing sports, riding a bicycle, using tampons, or during medical examinations.”
The WHO terms the test unethical as it “could cause additional pain and mimic the original act of sexual violence, leading to re-experience, re-traumatisation and re-victimisation.”
Also, in many cases it is performed without consent from the woman, which is a violation of women’s rights.
Forensic expert and lawyer Dr Indrajit Khandekar of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram, in Wardha, Maharashtra, who was instrumental in bringing the ban on the two-finger test in Maharashtra in 2011 even before the Supreme Court order, has slammed the test for being unscientific and in fact, is slut-shaming in nature. “In cases of sexual assault, it does not matter if a person was previously involved in sexual acts. Secondly, medically, there is no way to know whether a person is accustomed to sex either,” he has said in the past too.
In 2013, the World Health Organisation (WHO), UN Women and UN Population Fund (UNFPA) released a clinical handbook titled Healthcare for Women Subjected to Intimate Partner Violence or Sexual Violence’, which specifically states, “There is no place for virginity (or ‘two-finger’) testing; it has no scientific validity.”
Over the years, activists have called the two-finger test unscientific and painful to rape survivors. News18
What the SC said about it in the past?
This isn’t the first time that the Supreme Court has come down against the two-finger test, calling it patriarchal and sexist.
In 2013, the apex court while hearing the case of Lillu @ Rajesh and Another versus State of Haryana (2013), held that the two-finger test on a rape victim violates her right to privacy, and asked the government to provide better medical procedures to confirm sexual assault. A bench of Justice BS Chauhan and Justice FMI Kalifulla said even if the report of the two-finger test is affirmative, it cannot give rise to the presumption of consent on part of a rape victim.
“Undoubtedly, the two-finger test and its interpretation violate the right of rape survivors to privacy, physical and mental integrity and dignity. Thus, this test, even if the report is affirmative, cannot ipso facto, be given rise to the presumption of consent,” the bench had said.
It further added, “Medical procedures should not be carried out in a manner that constitutes cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and health should be of paramount consideration while dealing with gender-based violence.”
In recent times, the test grabbed headlines when a woman officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF) — who had accused her colleague of rape last year — had alleged that she was subjected to the illegal two-finger test to confirm the sexual assault in September 2021.
The 28-year-old woman officer had alleged that she had been raped by her colleague at the Indian Air Force College in Redfields, Coimbatore. Following the trauma, she filed an FIR and doctors performed a two-finger test. “Only later did I find out that the two-finger test is not supposed to be done for a rape exam. This action made me nauseous enough to relive the trauma of being raped,” she was quoted as saying in her FIR, as per a Hindustan Times report.
Where else is two-finger test recently banned performed?
Other than India, countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia have banned the two-finger test.
In 2021, Pakistan’s Lahore High Court also banned the practice, saying the tests were “humiliating” and “had no forensic value”.
In August last year, the Indonesian army also banned the regressive test for women wanting to join the troops. Prior to the ban, those who were not deemed virgins were not eligible for recruitment.
Afghanistan outlawed the practice in 2018, but the country’s Independent Human Rights Commission said in September that women were still being forced to undergo the tests.
With inputs from agencies
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