“How can you debar people with disabilities from entering the MBBS
course?”
This is the question put forward to the Medical Council of India
(MCI) by a bench of the Delhi High Court while
hearing a petition challenging the discriminatory guidelines of the MCI
regarding undergraduate disabled medical aspirants.
Disability rights crusader Dr Satendra Singh had filed a
petition in the court seeking to quash the discriminatory guidelines. While
this did not happen, the court had strong words for the MCI questioning how
it has come up “with the magical number of 80%”.
The court also issued notices to the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
and the MCI seeking a response as to why people with over 80% disability have
been barred from pursuing the MBBS program.
We argued that the MCI notification is against the law of the land, saying
that there is no scientific basis for barring disabled people from entering
he medical field and that in India and around the world there are many
examples of doctors with disabilities who are doing outstanding work. We
told the court that the MCI has not applied its mind and has shown total
negligence, to which the court issued notices to the MCI and the ministries
asking them why they issued such a notification. – Advocate Gaurav
Kumar Bansal, Lawyer for petitioner
The petition also highlights how the MCI guidelines violate Section
3 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act,
2016, which provides for equality and non-discrimination.
Aspirants like Sachin Malik, who last year successfully
challenged the Haryana government’s move to deny him admission on grounds
of a 80% disability, hopes that the court’s strong stand will bring relief
to others.
“By taking such a position the court will hopefully put pressure on the MCI
to withdraw the unjust guidelines so others do not suffer like I did”, said
Malik.
The court has given the three parties four weeks’ time to respond. While this
still gives undergraduate students who are applying this enough time, it is
too late for postgraduate (PG) counselling admissions, a matter that Dr Singh
plans to take up separately after speaking to the affected people.
One of them is Dr Mohammed Shaloo, who has been practising
as a junior resident doctor for two years now. Dr Shaloo too plans to file a
separate petition against the MCI. What is the heartening is the widespread
support extended by the larger medical fraternity towards doctors like him.
As Dr Upreet Dhaliwal, from the University College
of Medical Sciences, University of Delhi points out, the MCI’s
discriminatory attitude sends out “the message that people with disability
may get is that they are not welcome in medicine or that they cannot possibly
contribute in a meaningful way. Nothing could be further from the truth. By
denying people with disability their right to train as doctors, we deny
patients with disabilities access to medical professionals who understand
their bodies and their reality from first-hand experience”.
Time that the MCI reads the writing on the wall.
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/21504
