India is poised for a gruelling battle for marriage equality

India is poised for a gruelling battle for marriage equality. This inspiring couple are spearheading the fight

Two women leading the charge for India to introduce equal marriage say they are “doing it for their younger selves”.

Kavita Arora and Ankita Khanna, who have been together for eight years, petitioned the Delhi court in October 2020 for the constitutional right to marry.

They, along with two other LGBT+ couples who have also petitioned the court, argue that without official recognition, they are “strangers in law”.

“We have created a great life together, but where is the legitimacy to that?” Khanna told TIME. Despite India decriminalising same-sex relationships in 2018, Arora and Khanna’s relationship has no legal status.

This means they can’t share property rights, make medical decisions for each other – something that suddenly became more pressing as the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe – and, in short, they lack the rights that heterosexual married couples in India take for granted.

“Marriage is not just a relationship between two individuals — it brings two families together. But it is also a bundle of rights. We wish to have the protection of the bundle of rights that a marriage provides, so that we are not trying to get authorities to acknowledge our relationship for every entitlement or right that married couples would get automatically,” Arora said, speaking to The Print.

The legal fight for marriage equality in India is likely to take a long time – the judicial system is notoriously slow, religious groups are resistant and the top lawyer for prime minister Narendra Modi’s government has argued against equal marriage.