NMC Draft Regulation Discriminates Against Foreign Medical Graduates

• 5/7/2021 10:32:07 AM
• 1 Comments
• Siddharth
• BMU

To meet the challenges posed by Covid, health infrastructure is required to be augmented rapidly. Some estimates suggest that there are about 100, 000 foreign medical graduates (FMGs) in the country. They cannot practice without qualifying for the Screening Test.

Recently, the NMC has placed in the public domain the draft of “Foreign Medical Graduate Regulations, 2021” {FMGR}that on the face of it treats foreign medical graduates in an unfair and discriminatory manner.

The FMGs' right to practice medicine in the country had crystallized after a long struggle. In case, proposed changes come into effect then the FMGs way of becoming a doctor in his or her own country may become more difficult.

Under the existing law, an Indian Citizen/Overseas Citizen of India is required to conform to the norms laid down by the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) for obtaining MBBS in India. An applicant must be 17 years of age in the year of admission and must have obtained in 10+2, 50% or more marks in Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Biotechnology.

 In return, these candidates are required to qualify for the Screening Test conducted based on the undergraduate curriculum to obtain registration to practice medicine. The law permits any Indian citizen to venture to any country outside India and does not impose any restriction regarding language for obtaining medical education.

This simple, settled, and acceptable scheme for Indian citizens/Overseas citizens of India has been turned upside down in the draft Regulations proposed by NMC.

On the other hand, the draft FMGR is contained in four provisions and appears to be short and concise. However, NMC in its proposed draft seeks to have an extraterritorial operation of Indian law, for it provides that the medical education curriculum of foreign medical institutions shall be commensurate with the MBBS curriculum prescribed by NMC.  Read More