Hathras case: Markandey Katju's post linking unemployment to rapes irks netizens

A day after a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras died after being gang-raped and tortured, former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju on Wednesday courted controversy with his insensitive social media post on the incident.

While condemning the gruesome incident in Hathras and demanding harsh punishment for the culprits, the former judge also said that 'sex is a natural urge in men'. Moreover, he linked the rising number of rape cases to the rising unemployment rate in India.

"I condemn the Hathras gang rape, and call for harsh punishment of the culprits. However, having said that there is one aspect which also needs to be considered. Sex is a natural urge in men. It is sometimes said that after food, the next requirement is sex," he wrote on Facebook.

The 19-year-old woman was raped in a village in Hathras by four men on September 14. After her condition deteriorated, she was referred to Delhi's Safdarjung hospital where she breathed her last on Tuesday.

Arguing that in a conservative society like India, one can ordinarily have sex only through marriage, Katju added that a large number of unemployed men cannot marry as "no girl will ordinarily marry an unemployed man".

Katju went on to compare the rise in India's population to the overall increase in jobs since Independence, arguing that the less than ideal rate of job growth in the last seven decades could have led to a spurt in rape cases in India.

"Today India alone has about 135 crore people, which means there has been a fourfold increase in population. But the number of jobs increased are far less than fourfold. In fact it is believed that in June 2020 alone 12 crore Indians lost their jobs. Therefore will there not be increase in rapes?" he wrote.

Katju's post was slammed by netizens who could not find any logic between unemployment rates, rapes and sexual urges.

After facing a social media fury, Katju wrote another post but continued to stick to his point that unemployment was the leading cause of rapes in India.

"I was accused of being a misogynist, sexist, provocative, rape supporter, a man with a sick mentality, and what not. But what wrong did I do ? I only said that rapes will not go down unless unemployment goes down. No doubt unemployment is not the only cause of rape, but it is the most important cause," he wrote.

Meanwhile, protests have broken out across India with all sections of society, including politicians, sports and cine stars and activists, expressing their anguish and demanding justice for her.