Disability guidelines should be revised; Doctors
The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled has asked the Union Ministry to introduce guidelines for the disabled people to pursue medicine through the entry to medical colleges.
According to the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled, guidelines proposed by the Medical Council of India are “arbitrary and blatantly discriminatory” and will deny candidates with disabilities opportunities to pursue medicine. On August 16th, around 75 doctors with disabilities from across the country 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. This year, several medical candidates approached High Courts of their respective places in the country as well as in the Supreme Court against the new guidelines framed by MCI in June this year. The letter written was led by Dr. Satendra Singh, Delhi Medical Council Ethics Committee member and a disability rights activist living with a lower limb disability. According to Dr. Satendra Singh, the new guidelines are unfair. It restricts the ability of a mobility impaired person up to 80 percent. Candidates with disability exceeding this limit are ineligible for medical admission as per MCI guidelines. He also opined that the process adopted by the MCI is irrational and discriminatory as there was no consultation done with disability organizations before framing these new guidelines. “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 organizations before framing these new guidelines.” He added.
Apart from the opposition by the students, Muralidharan, general secretary of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled says that “We believe the proposed guidelines are based on preconceived notions and prejudices. We have sought the intervention of the health minister for appropriate guidelines.” The organization also cited a US doctor, Stanley Wainapel, who had observed that much of the focus in medicine is on incapacity rather than preserved capacity, particularly when some functions can be augmented. Three years ago, Dr. Wainapal pointed out that a paraplegic doctor could stand in an operating room with a special device, a physician whose vision precludes reading chart notes could easily access electronic medical records using screen-reading software, or a medical student with hearing impairment could do cardiac osculation using an electronic stethoscope.
Citing the example of a medical oncologist in India who is confined to a wheelchair and has 80 percent locomotor disability, the platform has requested for the revision of the guidelines, saying that the revision exercise should involve doctors with disabilities as well as organizations working among persons with disabilities.