In pursuance to the order of the Supreme Court, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has permitted Indian students — who were in the last year of their undergraduate medical course, but due to COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine war, etc., had to leave their foreign medical universities and return to India — to appear in the Foreign Medical Graduate (FMG) Examination.
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“The above relaxation granted to the foreign medical students is a “one-time measure and shall not be treated as precedence in future”, the NMC stated.
Due to COVID-19, around 23,000 Indian students returned from various Chinese universities and colleges, mostly pursuing medical courses, while due to the Russia-Ukraine war, around 18,000 Indian medical students returned from Ukrainian medical universities.
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But students who are studying in other years of their undergraduate medical courses are also demanding that the Union government accommodate them in Indian medical colleges.
Inchara Raj, a resident of Kanakapura, and a first year medical student of Bukovinian State Medical University at Chernivtsi, Ukraine, told to The Hindu, “Our university is conducting online classes and I have successfully done the first year medical course examination through online. It is good that the NMC has permitted students to appear for the FMG examination. But, there is no decision on the students who are studying in the second, third and other years of medical courses. The future of education is uncertain. There is no sign of the war ending and we don’t want to back to the universities. So, we request the Union government to rehabilitate us in Indian medical colleges.”
What the NMC order says
In pursuance to the Supreme Court order, NMC has ordered on July 28, 2022 that, “The Indian students who were in the last year of their undergraduate medicine course, due to Covid-19, Russia-Ukraine war etc., and had to leave their foreign medical universities and return to India and have subsequently completed their studies as also have been granted certificate of completion of course/degree by their respective institute on or before June 30, 2022, shall be permitted to appear in FMG examination.’’
“Thereafter, upon qualifying the FMG examination, such foreign medical graduates are required to undergo ‘Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI)’ for a period of two years to make up for the clinical training which could not be physically attended by them during the undergraduate medicine course in the foreign institute as also to familiarise them with practise of medicine under Indian conditions. The foreign medical graduates will be eligible to get registration only after completing the CRMI for two years,’’ the NMC said.