Men who are yet to hit 50 are too young to teach girls in Haryana’s government schools, according to the state's education minister.

"Ram Bilas Sharma', known for his controversial remarks and decisions, has said male teachers in their forties or younger should not take jobs at girls’ schools, a move purportedly linked to women’s safety.

“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 said.

The initiative is part of Haryana government's new Teachers Transfer Policy-2016 under which only those teachers who were above 50 will be posted at government senior secondary schools for girls.

The minister had earlier sparked a controversy 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The move to ban jeans for teachers was withdrawn after the state government faced widespread criticism.