Ukraine-returned medical students are still in the grip of uncertainty as there is no end in sight to the war with Russia. The National Medical Commission (NMC) has not agreed to the demand to allow them to study in Indian medical colleges too.
Students from Kerala are the worst-affected as they form the largest chunk in the group from India. According to official figures, of the around 22,000 medical students in various medical universities in Ukraine, over 3,600 are from the State.
Venugopal Kannoth, vice president, All Kerala Ukraine Medical Students’ and Parents’ Association, told The Hindu on Monday that the NMC was yet to clarify its stand on the transfer of students to Indian medical colleges. The option before the students is to go to medical colleges in Poland, Hungary or Romania, where the fees is much higher. Mr. Venugopal’s daughter Aparna is studying in Odesa National Medical University.
“Though the Commission’s July 28 order will help the final-year students to do a two-year internship, it will also prove counter-productive for their junior batches. Normally, foreign medical graduates wait for some time after completing their course before they get official approval for internship here. Now they may have to wait for two years or more to let the existing batch complete their training,” he pointed out.
According to sources, the medical universities in Ukraine are now demanding payment of fees for the next semester on September 1. Some of the students say that their admissions could be cancelled if the fees are not paid. The association from Kerala and students from Haryana, Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have approached the Supreme Court seeking urgent redressal of their grievances.
Observership
Meanwhile, K.V. Babu, Kannur-based public health activist, has written to the NMC Chairperson against the West Bengal government offering observership for Ukraine-returned students.
He pointed out that Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, had said on July 22 in the Lok Sabha that “there are no such provisions in the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 & the National Medical Commission Act, 2019” as well as “the Screening Test Regulations, 2002, or Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021, to accommodate or transfer medical students from any foreign medical institutes to Indian medical colleges”.
It was in reply to an unstarred question if the government was proposing to accommodate Ukraine-returned medical students in medical colleges in the country to help them complete their studies, with details, if any.
“If we go by an affidavit filed by the NMC in the apex court, various orders by the court and the final notification from the Commission, it is clear that continuing observership in private and government medical colleges in West Bengal is not backed up by laws,” he pointed out.
