The Medical Council of India has taken a U-turn from its earlier policy, which was the cause of a two-decade-long battle with differently-abled students
Your physical disability, no matter how severe, can no longer come in the way of you becoming a doctor. The Medical Council of India (MCI) has announced that it will now allow 21 categories of even severely disabled candidates to take next year’s graduate and post-graduate medical courses reports the Hindustan Times.
MCI has taken a U-turn from its earlier policy, which was the cause of a two-decade-long battle with differently-abled students.
It only allowed candidates below 70% disability of the lower limbs to study medicine.
This comes after the Supreme Court said in August that it was the duty of every institution to help its differently-abled students. Hence, the MCI has finally agreed to do away with its decades-old policy.
With severe disability, the MCI meant to include blindness, low-vision, hearing impairment, locomotor disability, dwarfism, intellectual disability, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy, reports HT.
This is part of the newly revised disability law which will be implemented all over the country, MCI secretary Reena Nayyar told the publication. It was during a meeting on October 31 that the council decided that barring disabled individuals from pursuing medical studies did not make sense and reflected the apathy towards them in Indian society.
A thalassemia student was allowed to take admission in a medical college in August by the Supreme Court, which is when it asked the council to implement the laws and uphold social justice.
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