Medical students who returned from Ukraine are still in the grip of uncertainty as there is no end to the war with Russia. The National Medical Commission (NMC) has not agreed to their demand to allow them to study in Indian medical colleges as well.
Students from Kerala are the most affected as they form the largest part of the group from India. According to official figures, out of about 22,000 medical students in various medical universities in Ukraine, more than 3,600 are from the state.
Venugopal Kannoth, Vice President of All Kerala Ukraine Medical Students and Parents Association said Hindu On Monday, the NMC is yet to clarify its stand on the transfer of students to Indian medical colleges. The option before the students is to go to medical colleges in Poland, Hungary or Romania, where the fees are very high. Mr. Venugopal’s daughter Aparna is studying at Odessa National Medical University.
“Though the July 28 order of the commission will help final year students to do two years internship, it will also prove to be counterproductive for their junior batches. Usually foreign medical graduates after completing their course wait for some time before getting official approval for internship here. Now they may have to wait for two years or more for the current batch to complete their training,” he said.
According to sources, the medical university in Ukraine is now demanding payment of fees for the next semester on September 1. Some students say that their admission may be canceled for non-payment of fees. Associations of Kerala and students of Haryana, Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have approached the Supreme Court for immediate redressal of their grievances.
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Meanwhile, Kannur-based public health activist KV Babu has written to the NMC president against the West Bengal government’s offer of supervisors for students who have returned from Ukraine.
He pointed out that Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharti Praveen Pawar had said in the Lok Sabha on July 22 that “there is no such provision in the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 and the National Medical Commission Act, 2019”. as well as the “Screening Test Regulations, 2002, or the Foreign Medical Graduate License Regulations, 2021, for accommodating or transferring medical students from any foreign medical institutions to Indian medical colleges”.
This was in response to an unstarred question whether the government is proposing to accommodate medical students returned from Ukraine in the country’s medical colleges to help them complete their studies, along with details, if any.
“If we go by an affidavit filed by the NMC in the apex court, various court orders and the final notification from the commission, it is clear that continued supervision in private and government medical colleges in West Bengal is not supported by laws. ,” he pointed out.