March 15, 2019
Yet another doctor with a disability finds herself up against a wall thanks
to the Medical Council of India (MCI)‘s discriminatory
guidelines.
Last week we brought you the story of Dr Mohammed Shaloo,
who has legally challenged the MCI guideline barring MBBS doctors with a
disability of over 80% from doing further specialization.
Today, we bring you the story of yet another doctor, Anjani
Bala from Ranchi. Like Dr Shaloo, Dr Bala has a locomotor disability
and needs support to walk long distances. That did not come in the way of
completing an MBBS successfully from the Indira Gandhi Institute of
Medical Sciences (IGIMS) in Patna. She has also cleared the NEET
entrance exam for post graduate admissions.
By all measures, this makes her eligible to pursue an MD in dermatology or
radiology as planned. Yet, when she went to Safdarjung
Hospital in New Delhi for a routine disability assessment, she was
declared ineligible under the MCI’s new guidelines.
The question I am asking is that when I was found eligible for MBBS and
have completed it successfully, why not MD? At Safdarjung Hospital, I did
everything they asked for, including sitting on the floor and crossing my
legs. They also checked the power of my legs and asked me to walk without
support for some distance. They took an x-ray of my legs as well. –
Dr Anjani Bala, MBBS doctor
Dr Bala, who delivered a baby two weeks ago, was wearing a belt around her
abdomen as recommended by her gynaecologist. But the doctor evaluating her at
Safdarjung Hospital refused to believe her. “She told me that she had
undergone a caesarean as well and was never told to wear it and declared me
ineligible”, says Dr Bala.
Present during the evaluation was Dr Bala’s husband, Rajan Kumar
Mehta, who is also a doctor. “I found their attitude very unhelpful
and discriminatory”, he says. “It was as if they had made up their mind to
reject her. They said things like ‘she is too disabled and cannot do many
things’. They even asked us irrelevant questions like why we had come to
Delhi for the evaluation instead of going to Kolkata, which is frankly none
of their concern”.
Dr Bala says she is disappointed and demoralized by the whole experience. “I
don’t know what to do now. People tell you things like work hard and overcome
the disability and then place barriers in your way. Why admit me into MBBS
and then block me later, especially when I have done everything asked for in
my MBBS program?”
Her senior at IGIMS and currently a practising doctor at Ranchi’s
Kanke General Hospital, Dr Swati Shree,
expressed outrage. “Anjani used to go on the rounds at IGIMS Hospital like
everyone else, on all the four floors. She would assist in deliveries, go to
every ward for check ups and never said no to any task. To deny her the
opportunity to study further is very unfair”.
Valid questions that are being asked time and again by the medical fraternity
across India. Yet, the MCI chooses to maintain this biased, regressive and
outdated stance.
“While the MCI was framing guidelines to doubt the competence of disabled
persons, the same time General Medical Council of UK came up
with “Welcomed and Valued” Guidelines for candidates with disabilities”,
points out Dr Satendra Singh, the disability rights crusader
who has campaigned for the removal of these discriminatory guidelines.
“The Association of American Medical Colleges also framed an
Access & Inclusion report to embrace disability as diversity. Based on
our suggestions, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare added the
“functional competence” clause for those with over 80% disability. However,
the removal of this one key phrase by MCI BoG is shattering dreams of so many
aspirants”, adds Dr Singh.
Dr Bala’s happy and hopeful expression should fill decision makers with a
deep sense of shame.
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/21677
