Widower, bachelor or virgin, asks Patna medical college
PATNA: Patna’s premier autonomous health facility — the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) — wants its employees to declare their virginity at the time of employment. The marital declaration form, which has existed since the inception of the institute in 1983, expects its employees to declare whether they are bachelor, widower or virgin.
In Devanagri (Hindi language), unmarried girls are referred to as ‘kunwari kanya’, which, if translated in English, is ‘virgin’. We have not changed any text but have simply copied the forms from AIIMS DR MANISH MANDAL, medical superintendent
PATNA: Patna’s premier autonomous health facility — the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) — wants its employees to declare their virginity at the time of employment.
The marital declaration form, which has existed since the inception of the institute in 1983, expects its employees to declare whether they are bachelor, widower or virgin. It also wants them to specify the number of wives they have.
Newly appointed health minister Mangal Pandey of the BJP was caught unawares when TV reporters asked him about it on Wednesday. The minister told a TV news channel that it was an employee’s “zodiac sign (kanya rashi or Virgo)”, which s/he had to mention on the form and nothing more.
The minister may have been ignorant, but the institute defended itself when HT posed the same question to its medical superintendent, Dr Manish Mandal. “Our rules and forms are the same as that of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. We have simply adopted it in letter and spirit,” he said. Asked about the word ‘virgin’ on the form, Dr Mandal explained, “In Devanagri (Hindi language), unmarried girls are referred to as ‘kunwari kanya’, which, if translated in English, is ‘virgin’. We have not changed any text but have simply copied the forms from AIIMS.”
He further said, “The IGIMS cannot change it. If anything has to be amended, it can be done only through legislation or orders of the judiciary.”
The forms, he said, were to be filled by all employees at the time of joining so that their dues could be settled on the basis of their declaration in the event of death while in service.
The IGIMS was established on November 19, 1983, on the pattern of AIIMS, New Delhi, with the objective to provide super specialty medical facilities in Bihar. Its board of governors, the supreme body of the institute, which governs it, has 13 members, with the state’s health minister as its chairman. The institute director is it member-secretary. Three IAS officers — principal secretaries of health, finance and development — and eight doctors are its members.