On July 18, the protesting batch of 2021 Indian medical students, who came back from Ukraine after Russia declared war on the nation, met officials from the National Medical Commission (NMC).
These students, who are currently in their second year, ask for a one-time relaxation of the new Foreign Medical Graduate rules of November 2021, allowing them to transfer to other countries to continue their education. Countries like Russia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and so on have offered transfer programmes for Indian students. However, the new NMC guidelines say they won’t apply to those admitted in September 2021.
If relaxation is offered, say the students, they can transfer to “safer” countries to conclude their education – as going back to war-torn Ukraine is out of the question for them. But they are waiting for an official notice from NMC so that later on, their degree is not declared invalid.
In the same regard, they met Shambhu Sharan Kumar, Director, Under-Graduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) and Aruna V Vanikar, President, Undergraduate Medical Education Board.
"The NMC officials said that if the Ministry of Home Affairs, after being informed by the Indian Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, says that the situation is dire and advises students against coming back to continue education there, only then can the NMC issue such an order," says Deepak Kumar, a 2021-batch student from Ternopil National Medical University, Ukraine.
"We urge the NMC to assure us that if we take the transfer, they will not invalidate our degree later," he says.
"People assume that the matters of all Ukraine-returned medical students have been settled, but we, the 2021 batch, are still suffering. We are about 1,000 in number and our future is getting affected," the student goes on to share.
As they received no assurance on the matter, students protested at Jantar Mantar yesterday, Monday, July 24, regarding the same demands. There were approximately 50 students on the site and they protested from 10.30 am to 4 pm.
