Key Points
New Delhi:The National Medical Commission (NMC) Thursday withdrew its contentious Competency Based Medical Education Curriculum (CBME) guidelines for 2024 after vehement protests by activists who have called the guidelines outdated and archaic...
Moreover, they have said that the guidelines violated the rights of those who fall under the purview of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPDA), 2016, since they removed from the foundation course what is called the seven hours of disability competenciesregarded as best practice globally for providing healthcare to persons with disabilities...
In a letter to Union health minister J.P. Nadda and the NMC chairman, this week, two organisations, the International Council for Disability Inclusion in Medical Education (ICDIME) and the Association for Transgender Health in India, called the guidelines outright ableist and queerphobic...
Satendra Singh, the co-chair of ICDIME, told ThePrint that disability rights, as mandatory disability competencies, were introduced into the foundation course in 2019.However, in the now-withdrawn, 2024 guidelines, the course was reduced to just two weeks, with eight protected hours kept for sports but no mention of the seven hours for disability competencies...
There will be some tweaking in the now-withdrawn guidelines before the revised version is released soon, the UGMB member further said.. ICDIME co-chair Singh said the move to put the 2024 guidelines on hold is an interim relief but added a caveatwhat revisions the NMC makes in the new curriculum remains to be seen...
