Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow MBBS students returning from Ukraine to be absorbed in Indian medical colleges as a “one- time measure."
In a communication to PM Modi on Friday, IMA said, “The number of medical students who have sought admission to medical colleges / schools in Ukraine is substantial and they are at various stages of their progression. As a matter of set prescribed rule an Indian student seeking admission to any foreign medical college is required to procure an eligibility certificate for the said admission from the then Medical Council of Indian now rechristened as National Medical Commission constituted vide National Medical Commission Act, 2019 repealing Indian Medical Council Act, of 1956."
This comes in the backdrop of Central government indicating its intent on Thursday to take relevant steps to rehabilitate medical students returning from war-tone of Ukraine.
The IMA has recommended that such students should be permitted in Indian medical schools for the remainder of their MBBS Course. On 24 February Russia launched a massive military invasion of Ukraine. Thousands of Indian citizens including medical students are stranded in the conflict zone.
“These are unprecedented times. In India there are approximately 500 medical colleges including private and government and 70,000 to 80,000 students get admitted every year. This is in hands of the government and National Medical Commission (NMC) to amend and increase in the seats on temporary bases so that students’ career does not get spoiled," Dr. Jayesh Lele, honorary secretary general of IMA told Mint.
With the fate of thousands of Indian medical students in war-torn Ukraine hanging in the balance, the country's doctors’ association has been asking for a special provision under the National Medical Commission (NMC) to consider the transfer of such students to medical colleges in other countries valid. This in turn will ensure their eligibility to apply for the entrance exam in India for foreign medical graduates —NEET-FMG (Foreign Medical Graduates' Exam).
“This will also need the validation of certification which has been made by the competent academic authorities of the medical schools where they were originally admitted in medical schools in Ukraine whereby the progression of theirs’ would be permissible in Indian Medical Schools. Resultantly, on passing out they will be as good as Indian Medical Graduates and not Foreign Medical Graduates," the IMA letter said.
Ukraine’s state-run universities providing quality medical education at low costs have been attracting Indian students for years. There are around 18,095 Indian students in Ukraine, according to the country’s ministry of education and science.
“The analogy of the aforesaid proposition is drawn on the basis of explicit modality which is availed in the Indian context in case of closure of a ongoing medical college in India whereby the students already admitted thereat they are appropriately disbursed into other medical schools in India in terms of a structured procedure which is prescribed and the same is taken as a onetime exception not to be quoted as a precedence and construed as an augmentation or increase in the annual intake capacity of the add on admitting medical college in any manner," the letter said.
