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IGIMS Patna Asks New Employees, "Are you a Virgin?"

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Ria Das
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“I am a bachelor/widower/virgin” or that “I am married and have only one wife living/married to a person who has no other wife living.”  The Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) Patna asked its new recruits in a Marital Declaration questionnaire. Surprised?

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This declaration had to be filed by all freshly recruited doctors and nursing staffs. The form asks male employees details such as whether or they have more than one living wife.  The women had to answer whether they are "virgins" or not and testify whether the man they are married has more than one wife.

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Deputy Medical Superintendent, Dr Manish Mandal, told India Today, "Everyone has to fill this form which is part of Central Services Rules and this form is similar to what AIIMS in Delhi uses. If the Centre or AIIMS changes the format of the form in the future, we will also change it. This is not a new form and has been in practice since 1984 when IGIMS was established."

Dr Mandal also said, "In the Central Services Rules there is a provision that when a person joins the service and later on if she dies because of any eventuality, there may be a claimant or boyfriend who may come to seek a job in place of the victim.”

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He clarified by saying,"Essentially what is being asked in the form is whether a person is married or unmarried?  Personally, I feel the word used should have been unmarried instead of virgin. That would have been sober but what is there in the rules have to be followed."

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry tried to do some damage control by saying:

"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 Bihar's Health Minister Mangal Pandey on Thursday, NDTV reported.

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Hours later, he was forced to make amends. After being ridiculed on social media sites, the minister has now ordered the health department to revise the form and replace "virgin" with "unmarried".

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"Virgin doesn't have anything to do with virginity but marital status. If a person joins in and then dies, who would be the claimant?" Perhaps, he conceded, respondents "should have been asked whether they are married or not...that would have been sober," Mr Pandey claimed.

There is no denying that such questions definitely seem to tow the professional line. However, like many on the social media, we guess that the form only meant to ask whether the individual is "Single" and not a "Virgin".

 

Feature Image Credit: India Today

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