The country is mourning the death of the 19-year-old victim of horrifying gang-rape which took place in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. Besides sparking outrage, such incidents also highlight the deep-rooted patriarchal conditioning which dictates that women be treated as no more than objects of desire. It is when such crimes happen that many people’s toxic mentality comes into light.
For example, the former Supreme Court Judge of India, Markandey Katju, recently took to Facebook to condemn the Hathras incident.
However, in his post, he mentions how the deprivation of sex, a “natural urge” and a basic “necessity” for men, causes men to commit rape. He also claims that unemployment leads to rape because women don’t marry unemployed men and hence, the men have no ways of having sex in a conservative society, reports Deccan Herald.
“Sex is a natural urge in men. It is sometimes said that after food, the next requirement is sex. In a conservative society like India, one can ordinarily have sex only through marriage. But when there is massive and rising unemployment, a large number of young men cannot marry (as no girl will ordinarily marry an unemployed man). Consequently, a large number of young men remain deprived of sex…Therefore will there not be an increase in rapes?”
Have a look at his entire post here:
His statement sparked massive outraged online. People took to the comment section to highlight how rape is committed by employed and married men too and that it isn’t unemployment which causes rape. Some speculated that it is the need for domination and control.
It becomes a problem when educated and powerful people make statements like these because they have the power to influence people’s minds. To reduce women to sexual objects and to try to justify rape is condemnable.