Key Points
New Delhi: Womens and queer rights activists have praised the National Medical Commissions (NMC) decision to withdraw the order revising the forensic medicine curriculum for undergraduate medical students..
In a notice issued Thursday night, the apex medical education regulator, said, It is informed that the Circular issuing Guidelines under Competency Based Medical Education Curriculum (CBME) 2024, stands withdrawn and cancelled with immediate effect..
In an order on 31 August, the NMC decided to revise the curriculum, bringing back topics such as the importance of the hymen and its types, the definition of virginity and defloration, and its legitimacy and medico-legal importancereflecting the conservative idea in India that places the value of a womans honour upon an intact hymen and staying a virgin before marriage...
Classifying lesbianism and homosexuality as unnatural sexual offences and suggesting that consensual adult sex is the same as bestiality shows not just how regressive the NMC is, but how vulnerable the brightest young minds of India are to the rank prejudice contained in the curriculum, Penha had told ThePrint Thursday...
Chayanika Shah, another queer rights activist, told ThePrint that, in general, all curricula, including the medical curriculum, should be revised from time to time, however, she said that the revisions should incorporate new ideas and research..
