(Image source from: Don't marry before 25})

Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi believes in following the "Ashrama system" prescribes by ancient sages in Hindu philosophy. Recently he prescribed raising the marriage age to 25 for both men and women. Mr Manjhi says it will ensure good health and take care of malnutrition in the country.

In India the legal age for marriage is 21 years for men, while for women it's 18 years.

Mr Manjhi issued this statement on the sidelines of the Janata Darbar programme, started by former Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.

His exact words were: "I believe marriage age for both boy and girl should be raised to 25 in accordance with the age-old tradition of Ashrama system."

He further said, "It will solve the problems of bad health and malnutrition among women and infants prevalent in society today."

According to the Ashrama system man's life was divided into four stages on the basis of age.  "Brahmacharya" (celibacy) was the first stage in a person's life. It started at birth and continued till the age of 24. The second stage was "Grihastha", which starts from 24-48. Third stage was "Vanaprastha" and the age prescribed for it was 48-72. The fourth and last stage was "Sannyasa", which was to be adopted by 72, and continued till death.

Jitan Ram Manjhi also questioned as to why the average height of people has come down from 7 feet to 5 feet. And his simple answer was early marriage. The 70-year-old Bihar CM even attributed his good health to getting married after 25.

(AW: Pratima Tigga)