While India’s non-committal and non-critical stand against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was being debated politically, the nation’s efforts were concentrated on the safe evacuation of Indian students stranded in Ukraine. Images and videos calling for assistance shared by those stranded in Ukraine were being widely circulated almost on a daily basis.
In the backdrop of such a crisis, a statement by Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs on Monday ended up stoking people’s emotions. In an interview with TOI, the minister said, “90 percent of Indians who study medicine abroad do so because they fail to clear qualifying exams in India". Though he admitted that this was not the right time to debate the issue, the damage was done. The statement was panned by those stranded in Ukraine and the civil society in general considering its insensitivity and its untimeliness.
The statement hit a raw nerve in the house of Naveen Gyanagoudar, a fourth-year medical student from Karnataka who was killed in a shell attack while buying groceries in Ukraine. “My son was an intelligent student who simply could not afford to study medicine in India and thus went to Ukraine,” said his father.
"The donation is very high for those wanting to study medicine here. Here, a student will have to pay in crores to get a medical seat under quota." - Naveen's father
The Minister’s statement made in the backdrop of medical students stranded in Ukraine opened a pandora’s box of the state of aspiring doctors in India.
Medical Infrastructure in India
India has one of the highest numbers of medical colleges in the world. As of 2020-21, there were 562 medical colleges in the country of which only 286 (51%) were government-managed. While there are a high number of colleges, the issue is that the demand far exceeds the capacity. As of 2021, 16 lakh students appeared for the medical entrance test (NEET) for only 84,650 MBBS seats. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is conducted for admission to undergraduate medical courses in government and private colleges.
Compounding the situation is the reservation of 50% of the medical seats for students belonging to economically weaker sections. As noble as the objective may be, the meritorious candidates find themselves marginalized by this policy. Various petitions were filed in the Supreme Court against this reservation. However, the Supreme Court passed a judgment upholding the reservation in NEET. It said, “While examinations are a necessary and convenient method of distributing educational opportunities, marks may not always be the best gauge of individual merit.”
Why do students go to Ukraine to study Medicine?
According to Ukraine's Ministry of Education and Science, there are 18,000 Indian students pursuing medical courses in the country. These medical students form the largest group of the 76,000 international students studying in Ukraine. The top 3 reasons that make so many aspirant doctors from India make a beeline for Ukraine are:
- Lower fee structure: A six-year course in medicine costs between ₹15-25 lakh in Ukraine compared to ₹60-80 lakh in a private medical college in India. Though the fees in a government college come up to ₹12-14 lakh, only a few students get through in them.
- No entrance exam: Ukraine does not require applicants to clear tough entrance tests to gain admission to a medical school. This is highly appealing to students as Indian colleges require them to clear the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) with a high percentile.
- Accredited Universities: Ukraine ranks fourth in Europe for having the largest number of graduate and post-graduate specializations in the field of medicine. Almost all the universities are accredited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNESCO. Medical degrees by Ukrainian colleges are also recognized by the European Council of Medicine, General Medical Council of the UK.
However, in order to get a license to practice in India, doctors with foreign medical qualifications are required to take the National Board of Examinations’ Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE). Only 700 of the approximately 4,000 students who take the test every year are able to clear the test.
Time will tell how the government responds to this crisis - will it use the crisis as an opportunity to overhaul the medical education infrastructure in the country or be content only with claiming glory in the evacuation of all students from Ukraine?
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Jitesh Surjiani
Jitesh Surjiani is passionate about progressive change for India and its citizens. He writes about issues that are roadblocks in improving quality of life and interpersonal interactions as well as areas of public governance that fall short in intent and action.
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