Guess what? The National Medical Commission (NMC) is backpedaling on its bigoted MBBS syllabus after being dragged by activists and citizens alike. Their so-called ‘revised’ guidelines for Competency Based Medical Education (CBME), revealed in August, were chock-full of queerphobia and ableism—because why not teach future doctors to be biased right from the get-go? After the uproar, the NMC has promised to revisit their course guidelines yet again. Maybe this time they’ll consider consulting the communities they’re so eager to dismiss? We’re watching, NMC, and we won’t settle for performative changes!
Read on for details.
A Noble Pursuit Corrupted by Greed
The MBBS course mandates that students maintain 75% attendance in elective courses to qualify for the National Exit Test (NExT) and become doctors. According to the now-retracted guidelines, students were going to be taught that sodomy and lesbianism are “unnatural sexual offenses,” while non-consensual acts were bizarrely labeled as “natural.” The guidelines also grotesquely classified transvestism as “sexual perversion”. Let’s be clear: even if we entertain the notion of sexual perversion, it doesn’t warrant medical derision or forceful treatment, institutionalization, or any other carceral and coercive responses as a way of medical treatment. Human diversity deserves understanding, not punishment.
This was a glaring failure by the statutory body regulating medical education in India to acknowledge or respect queer and disabled identities. What kind of doctors are we training if the curriculum teaches them to only respect and treat Savarna, male, able-bodied people with any semblance of dignity? Women, cis or trans, queer folks, and disabled individuals—particularly those from marginalized castes and communities—are already sidelined in research and development. This bias is deeply entrenched, not only in the broader healthcare system but also in the educational institutions that should be fostering inclusivity rather than perpetuating discrimination and violence.
Before you proceed, a quick reminder that medicare providers including doctors are supposed to be in service of the patients (in some countries, they are legally expected to prioritize the well-being of the patient over their spouse!), regardless of them working in private or public healthcare centers and hospitals. So do you see the level of mistreatment this revision would have resulted in for the potential patients that these future doctors would treat?
Ego Over Empathy: The Problem with Medicine’s Prestige
Part of the problem is also the egotistical nature of this job. To even want to be a doctor is seen as a socially-desirable professional aspiration, as the “stable” and best career choice. But can we move towards understanding the intent to be a doctor beyond that? Sure it’s a noble profession, but being a medical practitioner has become about boosting one’s ego by posturing as an expert of all things related to the human body and mind, while earning back the money you spent, and an insensitive (and dare we say, condescending) approach to treating patients. This is, of course, a generalization. I would be lying if I said that every other new graduate and medical student I have come across weaponises their “scientific” approach to justify being casteist, misogynistic, queerphobic and even racist. However, I do find myself having to explain to many of them that while I am aware that the “female” anatomy is different, it doesn’t mean everything is about periods. There are other organs in the body too? Besides, the anatomy isn’t a binary! Disabilities exist. Intersex folx exist. People who undergo life-saving medical procedures to alter this anatomy exist!
The day we realize that people in medicine and healthcare services need to truly want to engage with society is the day we’ll see actual changes, in terms of systemic solutions. We cannot keep living in a world where private capitalist greed is prioritized above medicare and humanity.
Old School Medicine: NMC’s Outdated Approach to Disability and Care
Some other notable changes that the NMC brought in include shifting the ENT (otorhinolaryngological) and ophthalmology from part 2 of the phase III of MBBS to part 1 of phase III. Meaning, they used to study it in the Final Year, now they have rechanged it to Third Year, which was how it was earlier.
This course work includes lessons on the role of physiotherapy and occupational therapy in managing disabilities in elderly folx, specifically. Of course, we all know that only old people can be disabled, now, please tell me what age is considered “old” enough to have disabilities? This appears to have been made without considering that many patients are queer and disabled, and several others are young aspiring doctors as well.
After facing backlash from queer and disabled activists, who have criticized these changes as being “outright ableist and transphobic”, the NMC issued a notice on 5th September 2024, (yes, on teachers’ day – timing!), to announce that the current guidelines have been withdrawn and stand canceled henceforth. They will be working on revising them and re-sharing them in due course.
AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS HOMOPHOBIA AWAY
It’s 2024, we need more representation within the medical space. It’s cool to know that certain individual doctors and researchers work against these exclusionary ideas and try finding resources to learn about how they can treat and provide better care but we do need more Dalit, queer, and disabled practitioners to also provide reliable insights. We need affirmative action that makes sure that institutions and systems listen and respond to them respectfully.
Don’t you think we will be able to see progress in research & development in medicine if only more disabled, Dalit, and queer folx were better accommodated?
Why are we trying to make things difficult not just for marginalized folx, but the general population of our country? Queer progress IS collective progress.
It is worrisome to go to the doctors anyway, because of the stress of being sick, and the majority of established doctors being judgemental of our habits, lifestyles, and backgrounds. You name it, sexism, lack of awareness of any non-male anatomy, lack of sensitivity, fatphobia, casteism, classism, unwanted questions unrelated to the illness, their list of judgments runs long.
Not only does this add to the numerous ways doctors can mistreat you, refuse treatment in dismissive ways, but also it’s blatant abuse of power!
One of the suggestions is that they should look into appointing new members representing various communities who would also be able to mediate exam dates and preserve integrity of education (and question papers) a lot better than how it was handled this year.
We will be keeping our tabs on the changes that they will be making, hoping they are able to make education a lot more inclusive to ensure that this debacle is not repeated!
