Doctors with disability demand new, indiscriminate Medical Council of India's guidelines

Around 75 doctors with disabilities from across the country, including Mumbai, have written to Health Minister JP Nadda urging the minister to scrap the Medical Council of India's (MCI) guidelines on medical admissions for people with specific disabilities. The doctors have also requested the minister to frame new guidelines.

Several medical candidates this year approached High Courts in their respective regions in the country as well as in the Supreme Court against the new guidelines framed by MCI in June this year.

The letter — written on 16 August — was led by Dr Satendra Singh, Delhi Medical Council Ethics Committee member and a disability rights activist living with a lower limb disability. The doctors are demanding that the discriminatory MCI guidelines be rejected in light of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act and the MCI be instructed to reframe the same as per best practices in other countries and in consultation with doctors with disabilities as well as organisations working with people with disabilities.

Dr Satendra Singh, said, "The new guidelines restrict the ability of a mobility impaired person upto 80 per cent. Candidates with disability exceeding this limit are ineligible for medical admission as per MCI guidelines. This is unfair. No such restriction is placed in RPWD Act 2016, which mandates reasonable accommodation. All 21 benchmark disabilities are entitled reservations in higher education, which is refused by the MCI to successful NEET candidates. MCI provided the same benefit to all 21 disabilities for MD/MS courses earlier this year so why this u-turn after the declaration of the NEET result. Moreover, these guidelines are yet to be notified by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The process adopted by the MCI is irrational and discriminatory as there was no consultation done with disability organisations before framing these new guidelines."

Dr Satendra Singh, MD Physiology at UCMS Delhi had earlier fought discrimination to bring policy reforms. He unlocking 1,674 faculty posts for doctors with disabilities.

Mumbai-based Dr Roshan Shaikh lost both her legs in 2011 in a train accident. She successfully cleared the MBBS entrance examination but was disqualified for medical admissions as her disability was up to 88 per cent. At the time, the disability medical admission criteria was at a maximum 70 per cent, due which Roshan failed to qualify. She filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court, won the case and got into KEM. After completing her MBBS successfully, she is now pursuing MD Pathology at the same institute. Despite putting through and further winning the battle against discrimination, as per the new MCI criteria, she is still not 'fit' to pursue MBBS.

Another such success story is of Dr Divya Singh, MD Pediatrics, who was wheelchair-bound after a spinal cord injury. She is now employed at RIMS, Ranchi.

SUCCEEDING AGAINST ALL ODDS

Mumbai-based Dr Roshan Shaikh lost both her legs in 2011 in a train accident. She successfully cleared the MBBS entrance examination but was disqualified for medical admissions as her disability was up to 88 per cent. At the time, the disability medical admission criteria was at a maximum 70 per cent, due which Roshan failed to qualify. She filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court, won the case and got into KEM. After completing her MBBS successfully, she is now pursuing MD Pathology at the same institute. Despite putting through and further winning the battle against discrimination, as per the new MCI criteria, she is still not ‘fit’ to pursue MBBS.