Women who wear dress like men give birth to transgenders, autistic children: Kerala Professor

A college professor in Kerala courted controversy when he said that women wearing jeans and shirts "will give birth to transgenders."

"When a woman degrades her womanhood, or a man degrades his manhood, the girl born to them will have the characteristics of a man. A child born to such a woman will be transgender," he said.

The state government said it planned to initiate legal action against the professor, Rajith Kumar, and bar him from government-sponsored awareness classes in schools and colleges.

"Rajith Kumar has not withdrawn his controversial statements so far. The government is mulling initiating legal action against him," Health Minister K K Shylaja said in a statement.

"He has been propagating superstition and making anti-women remarks continuously," she said.

Kumar, a Botany professor at Sree Sankara Sanskrit university in Kalady, during an awareness class for students in Kasaragod, reportedly said that women wearing jeans, shirts and dressing up like men "will give birth to transgenders."

There are over six lakh transgenders in Kerala, he said.

He also said that children of parents who are not of good character turn out to be "autistic and suffer from cerebral palsy."

Earlier, he had made disparaging remarks against girl students while addressing them at a women's college in the state capital, following which a student had booed him and walked out in protest.

"If mothers wear jeans and shirts and dress like men, they will beget children who are transgenders."

"Children suffering from autism and cerebral palsy are born to parents who are not of good character," Kumar had said.

PTI