Bihar’s premier government hospital, the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), which kicked up a row by asking its new recruits to declare if they are “virgins”, has dropped the word and replaced it with “unmarried”.
Amid the furore over the issue, the Health Minister, however, sought to explain away the gaffe, saying the meaning of the word ‘virgin’ in the dictionary was ‘kunwari’ or unmarried, which was not objectionable.
The marital declaration form given to new recruits had asked them to declare whether “he/she was a bachelor/widower/virgin”.
The form also asked male recruits to mention whether they had only one wife or more.