New Delhi: An NGO, Pravasi Legal Cell, has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court on behalf of Ukraine returnee medical students, requesting that the Union of India's National Medical Commission (NMC) grant them permission to enroll in Indian medical colleges.
The petition asks the respondents to take suitable actions to permit and facilitate the continuation of studies for Ukraine-returned Indian medical students in Indian medical institutes from the point where their studies in Ukraine were disrupted due to the war. Plea claims that thousands of Indian medical students prefer Ukraine for medical school for a variety of reasons, including price, educational excellence, and the chance to practise medicine overseas. Indian medical students in Ukraine are also not required to take any medical admission exams if they pass.
The plea further states that the plight of the Indian medical students rescued from war-hit Ukraine has the potential of disrupting their careers who have already gone through the trauma of being in the war zone and at present, there are no norms or regulations in India to accommodate medical students, who were studying abroad and had to return to India midway, in Indian medical colleges in between an academic session.
The Constitution of India guarantees the Fundamental Right to Life under Article 21 which should mean and include the right to access and continuance to medical education in India by students of India who are forced to leave their medical education abroad due to the present scenario, read the plea.
Earlier, the Indian Medical Association(IMC) also recommended the Centre to accommodate these students in Indian Medical Colleges.
"We don't want to lose those 20,000 to-be-doctors who have faced so many difficulties on their way back to India and already they are in mental agony and kind of nervousness. Not giving them the opportunity, these students will lose their two years, resulting in their bleak future so we have requested the government to take it into account," said Dr. Jayesh M Lele, General Secretary of IMC.
