New Delhi: Claiming that a number of persons with disabilities have been denied admission to MBBS due to ‘Guidelines for Persons With Specified Disabilities’ framed by the Medical Council of India (MCI) in June, a group of 75 “doctors with disabilities” has now written to the Union health ministry to “reject the discriminatory MCI guidelines” in light of Right of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016.
These doctors have also urged health minister J.P. Nadda to “instruct MCI to reframe the guidelines as per the best practices in other countries and in consultation with doctors with disabilities as well as organisations working among persons with disabilities.”
In the letter sent today, the doctors have pointed out that it was on the direction of the health ministry that an expanded committee on disability was constituted by MCI. This committee framed the guidelines on June 5 for admission in MBBS of persons with 21 benchmark disabilities recognised in the new RPwD Act, 2016.
Supreme Court has directed the ministry to decide on final guidelines and is scheduled to hear the matter on August 21.
They said the apex court had on August 8 observed in a civil writ petition (Purswani Ashutosh (minor) through Dr. Kamlesh Virumal Purswani versus Union of India & Ors) that the recommendation of the MCI committee had not attained finality and was pending before the Central government for its consideration. It had thereafter ordered the Centre to decide this issue within ten days and listed the matter to be heard next on August 21.
Since the Supreme Court had also observed that “it is open to stakeholders for disabled categories including the petitioners to submit a representation to Central Government”, the doctors with disabilities, many of who are serving in top government medical institutions, have appealed to the Centre to do away with the anomalies in the guidelines.
One of the signatories and associate professor at the University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, Satendra Singh said the doctors have also pointed out that the MCI guidelines were criticised by many, including top doctors, doctors with disabilities as well as doctors from AIIMS Delhi, for being “unfair, discriminatory and in violation of RPwD Act 2016 and United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”
‘Guidelines led to denial of admissions, cancellations’
Working on the issue of disability, the doctors have noted that many cases have been filed in high courts and the Supreme Court pertaining to denial of admission in MBBS to students with disabilities or cancellation of their admissions due to the MCI guidelines. Moreover, they said, neither doctors with disabilities nor disability rights organisations were consulted or involved in the drafting of guidelines by the MCI.
They further state that though clear assessment guidelines were framed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and ratified by the health ministry, a psychiatrist in the MCI committee framed the guidelines for dyslexia, a developmental disorder assessed by paediatricians, neurologists and psychologists. “His recommendation debarred candidates with learning disabilities to pursue MBBS when there are numerous doctors with dyslexia in the West,” the doctors with disabilities complained. They also noted that AIIMS paediatricians, who frame assessment tools for autism, were excluded from the committee.
MCI guidelines declare candidates with learning disabilities ineligible despite their clearing NEET 2018 without any special concession.
Coming to the specifics, the letter noted that candidates with learning disabilities were not afforded any special accommodations in the NEET examinations in May 2018 and took the exam under the same conditions as everyone else. Many of them cleared the exam, considered one of the toughest in the country, setting to rest doubts regarding their ability to pursue MBBS.
Yet, the doctors with disabilities lamented that “these unapproved MCI guidelines also declare ineligible, candidates with locomotor disabilities, whose percentage is 80 percent or higher or has upper limb disability in non-dominant limb.”
The doctors also noted that many of them had also fought legal battles during post and under-graduation because of this unscientific upper limit of disability which, they insisted, had no rationale in modern times.
Recalling that last year too, the Supreme Court had directed the government to grant a seat to a student with thalassemia after she was denied admission, the letter also pointed out that the apex court had also ruled that those with colour blindness should not be discouraged from pursuing a career in medicine.
Globally PwDs are encouraged to enter study of medicine
Contrasting the manner in which PwD students are treated in India against those abroad, the doctors said the General Medical Council, UK has guidelines like ‘Gateways to the Professions’ (2008) and ‘Welcomed and Valued‘ (2018) providing practical suggestions to support disabled medical students and doctors through education and training based on their disability law. Similarly, they said, Association of American Medical Colleges 2018 report on ‘Accessibility, Inclusion, and Action in Medical Education: Lived Experiences of Learners and Physicians With Disabilities’ by Dr Lisa Meeks was another attempt to appreciate how people with disabilities can enrich medical education and the care of patients.
However, the letter said, no such attempt has been made by the MCI in India despite RPwD Act and availability of doctors with disabilities.
As such, they said, the Delhi high court had also commented while granting interim relief to a hearing-impaired candidate that “the recommendations of the committee set up by the MCI, disentitling persons with specified benchmark disability from pursuing undergraduate medical education are abhorrent to the principles enshrined in the constitution of India and to provisions of the RPwD Act.”
In light of these observations and the Centre’s power to bring necessary changes ahead of the next Supreme Court hearing, the group of doctors has urged the health ministry to direct the MCI to reframe the guidelines as per the best practices in other countries and in consultation with doctors with disabilities as well as organisations working among PwDs.
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