Former Madhya Pradesh PWD minister and senior Congress MLA Sajjan Singh Verma has instigated a controversy by making a bizarre statement on women, While the country is busy promoting its women, motivating her to achieve all feats of success, Sajjan Singh has objected to the idea to increase the marriageable age of women to 21.

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According to Senior Congress leader Sajjan Singh, “A girl is ready for reproduction by the age of 15,” he said at a press conference in Bhopal. “...On what basis does girls’ marriage age should be increased to 21 from 18?”


NCPCR seeks explanation within two days


The National Commission For Protection of Child Rights issued notice to the former Madhya Pradesh minister on Wednesday evening. It has asked Verma to “provide an explanation within two days giving reasons and justifying his intention for making such discriminatory statement”.

Verma’s comments came in response to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s proposal to start a national debate on the legal age of marriage. Inaugurating an awareness programme on crime against women called “Samman” on Monday, the chief minister supported raising the minimum age for women to marry.

“I feel that the marriage age of daughters should be increased from 18 to 21 years,” Chouhan had said. “I want to make this a matter of debate, and the country and the state should reflect on this.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi too had said during his Independence Day speech last year that the government will set up a committee to revise the legal marriageable age for women.

BJP demands to sack Sajjan Singh from Congress for such derogatory statements


The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded an apology from Verma. “Did he forget that his party’s president is a woman,” asked Madhya Pradesh BJP’s media panelist Neha Bagga. “Priyanka Gandhi is also a woman. I urge Sonia Gandhi to direct Verma to apologise in public and sack him from the party.”

BJP spokesperson Rahul Kothari also said that Verma has insulted all the “daughters of India”.