After 'jeans' shocker, Haryana minister says men below 50 not fit to teach girls

Chandigarh: In order to provide a safer environment to girls, the Haryana government is going to adopt a policy of disallowing male teachers below 50 years of age to teach girl students.

State Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, who has earlier made controversial statements, recently said that male teachers in their forties or younger should not opt for jobs at girls' schools.

The minister claimed that the move is linked to women's safety. The initiative is part of Haryana government's new Teachers Transfer Policy-2016 under which only those teachers, who were above 50 years of age, would be posted at government senior secondary schools for girls.

"The educational institutions for boys and girls were the same in the past and were separated following the recommendations of Swami Dayanand Saraswati. He has written in his book Satyarth Prakash that schools of boys and girls should be different and it was followed across the country," Sharma was quoted as saying.

The decision is based on the "natural Hindu philosophy of life" where a girl after a certain age needs special precautions and also on fears that they may be attracted towards their teachers, India Today reported.

Sharma, who is an hard-boiled Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) product, maintains the idea is to create a healthy atmosphere for girls so they are not "distracted".

The minister sparked a massive row last month when the state education department, on his orders, issued a directive to school teachers asking them not to wear jeans to work.

The move to ban jeans for teachers was withdrawn after the state government faced widespread criticism. The government's new age bar policy for male teachers has also drawn sharp criticism from the opposition Congress.

Former state minister Captain Ajay Singh Yadav said, "There is no harm in implementing such guidelines. Teachers over 50 years of age are more mature to tackle grievances of girl students."