National News

"Girls Can Reproduce At 15, Why to Raise Age For Marriage": Congress Leader

Centre earlier had formed a 10-member task force under politician Jaya Jaitley whether the legal age of marriage for women could be changed from 18 years.

Sentinel Digital Desk

NEW DELHI: A Madhya Pradesh Congress leader landed in controversy after the former minister, Sajjan Singh Verma made a controversial statement on a woman's minimum age for marriage.

"When girls can reproduce at 15 years, why to raise their marriageable age from 18 to 21 years," said the leader questioned to media persons.

The comment came in by the Congress leader while inaugurating "Samman", a fortnight-long public awareness drive about crimes against women, called for a national debate on raising the minimum age of marriage.

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Rahul Kothari said, "Sajjan Singh Verma has insulted all the daughters not only in Madhya Pradesh but across the country."

"It seems Verma has forgotten that the national president of his party Sonia Gandhi and the young national general secretary of his party Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are both women. I request the Congress national president Sonia Gandhi to ask Sajjan Singh Verma to publicly apologize to women and then fire him from the party," the BJP minister quoted saying to a national daily.

Earlier, National Commission for Women member Chandramukhi Devi made it to the headlines when she commented on the Uttar Pradesh's Badaun gangrape case.

Chandramukhi Devi visited the village where a 50-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped said the incident would not have happened had the woman not stepped out alone in the evening.

"I feel had the woman not stepped out in the evening, or one of her children had accompanied her, the incident would not have occurred", said the National Commission for Women member.

It is to be mentioned that a middle-aged woman was gang-raped and brutally killed at Uttar Pradesh's Badaun.

Reportedly, the three accused in the case, the temple priest and his two disciples, severely injured the woman's private parts by inserting a rod and killed her in the temple.

The incident reportedly took place in Mewari village under Uighati police station.