WOMEN IN INDIA SHOULD EACH BE ALLOWED TO COMMIT ONE MURDER DUE TO RAPE EPIDEMIC

An Indian politician has sparked fierce controversy after suggesting that women in the country should be granted immunity for murder amid the rape epidemic.

Rohini Khadse, head of the women's wing of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) made the shocking proposal in a letter to Indian President Droupadi Murmu on International Women's Day. 

Khadse argued that the widespread rape and brutalisation of girls and women in India had reached such a crisis point that drastic measures were needed.

In her letter on March 8, Khadse demanded that women be allowed to kill men who display 'rapist tendencies' without facing prosecution. 

She wrote that women 'want to kill the oppressive mentality, the rapist tendency, the inefficiency of law and order,' and for that to happen, women would have to kill men.

'We hope our demand will be granted after giving it a serious thought,' she added.

With a population of 1.4billion - made up of around 672million women and 728million men - if Khadse's suggestion was to be implemented, there may only be some 56million males remaining in the country after each woman had murdered a man.

This would hypothetically drive the population down to 728million. 

The demand came in response to a horrifying gang rape of a 12-year-old girl in Mumbai just days earlier. 

The girl was allegedly lured into a neighbour's house, where five men attacked her. Khadse pointed to this case as evidence that India remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for women.

'The incident happened two days ago in Mumbai - think what the situation might be across the country,' Khadse wrote, citing a World Population Review Survey that ranked India the most unsafe country for women in Asia.

Under BJP rule, reports of gang rapes and brutal killings of women have surged.

Khadse's radical proposal was backed by her party but dismissed by Hindu nationalist figures. 

NCP-SP spokesperson Clyde Crasto defended her comments, arguing that the BJP government should reflect on why such drastic measures are being proposed.

'Women are being pushed against the wall with nobody coming to their help,' Crasto said. 'Khadse is vocalising the anguish in the minds of women.'

Khadse also referenced India's history of warrior queens defending their kingdoms, suggesting that modern Indian women are now facing a different kind of battle. 

'Heroic women like Maharani Tararani and Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar pulled out swords to defend their people. Why should women today lag?'

While Indian law allows for self-defence in life-threatening situations, Khadse's call for immunity would bypass the legal process altogether.