'Virgin' means unmarried, says Bihar BJP Minister Mangal Pandey on IGIMS marital status form

Bihar's Health Minister Mangal Pandey on Thursday in a bizarre comment said that 'A virgin is a girl who is unmarried'. The minister's comment was meant to justify a government hospital form that requires doctors and other staff to declare their virginity or the number of times they have been married.

"I have looked up 'virgin' in the dictionary. It means kanya, kunwari (girl, unmarried) Punya Bhumi...I don't see anything objectionable in this," said Mr Pandey on Thursday.

However, after the controversy, IGIMS Patna removes the word 'virgin' from marital status declaration form and issues new form.

#Bihar: IGIMS Patna removes the word 'virgin' from marital status declaration form after controversy, issues new form. pic.twitter.com/VVjJuoTp4N

— ANI (@ANI_news) August 3, 2017

The Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), Patna, on Wednesday has asked its employees to declare if they are virgin and if they are having only one living wife in a marital status declaration form.

In a photograph of the declaration form distributed to the employees, the premium government medical college and hospital tweeted by the ANI read, “That I am bechelor /widower /virgin.”

The declaration form has spelling and grammatical errors. According to the form spelling of bachelor is written ‘bechelor’.

The government institute further in the marital declaration form also wants to confirm if a married person is only married to one woman or a woman is married to a man who has no other wife other than the declarer.