Mumbai: Now doctors, and once non-English students remain rather puzzled after Union Home Minister Amit Shah unveiled India's first three Hindi MBBS textbooks in Madhya Pradesh. Foreign to the language, these medical professionals have been there and done that, and are now practicing or getting their MDs in English after having gone through years of schooling in their mother tongue.
The medics didn't just cope but found convenience in learning the countless terms of anatomy, treatments, and diseases in the English language.
"Learning biology in Gujarati was a nightmare, I'd study medicine in English over any other language," says Pediatrician Jia Patel from Gujarat who initially took seven months to adapt to English after twelve years of Gujarati education.
"Hindi remains highly limited to certain states, I talk to most of my patients in Marathi," said a resident doctor of JJ Hospital, Mumbai who studied in a Marathi medium school till Class 10.
"MBBS is ultimately the foundation of your practice and higher studies, which is why you can't help but refer to external textbooks for specific topics. What happens when those are written in English," she added.
The doctors that practice today find that the right balance of English along with the respective regional language suits them better than Hindi while conversing with their patients. "My OPD patients will be confused when I tell them they have Kshay, but they will quickly understand TB," said Dr. Meet Ghonia, who studied in Gujarati till class 10 and is now a resident doctor for respiratory medicine in Delhi.
To further ease the learning process, a hybrid approach to teaching medical students is already prevalent within the country. Many teachers continue to converse and explain concepts in Hindi, even while referring to an English textbook. "My coaching class would break down fundamentals in Hindi if needed, but we stayed true to our English textbooks while preparing for NEET," said this year's NEET topper, Tanishka.
Though this move by the government remains voluntary for the students, it still serves as an imbalance in educational uniformity, for English continues to remain an international parameter when it comes to studying healthcare. "Taking it away affects the standardization of the course," said Prof Bipin Patel from MK Shah Medical College, Gujarat. "I see local schools shutting down because parents want children to be well-versed in English from a young age. Introducing a higher education curriculum in Hindi again makes no sense," he added.
The change brought in by the Union Government remains restricted to only the national textbooks for medical instruction. International literature like research journals still continues to accept and publish works in English.
"Barring the top few varsities, many colleges in India still don't understand the importance of keeping up with research in the medical world. Publications can even change our ways of functioning overnight. Taking English away from students might push us further behind," said Mrudula Joshi, a last-year MBBS student from B. J. Medical College, Pune.
