After the National Medical Commission (NMC) declared, in its notice dated June 7, that certificates by foreign medical universities compensating for online classes will not be accepted, the Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) in India have demanded the notice to be withdrawn.
To give more context, the NMC had offered a provision for foreign medical graduates to compensate for online classes, conducted due to the COVID-19 pandemic or war situations, with offline classes with the parent university or by doing one to two years of extra practical training or internship in India.
However, on June 7, the commission withdrew its provision for a ‘compensatory certificate’ from the parent university, leaving only two to three years of Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) for the FMGs to avail of a permanent registration.
Reacting to this, a foreign medical graduate who completed his MBBS from China, said, “This is completely unfair. There are students who went back to their parent universities in foreign countries just to compensate for their online classes so that they do not have to do extra years of CRMI in India. Now, the NMC has backed out from something they introduced in the first place. It is a waste of time and money for the FMGs. They have no sympathy for us.”
The NMC, in its notice dated June 7, explained that it has taken this decision as “many FMGs are maliciously obtaining compensatory certificates from their parent universities for the online classes carried by them.”
However, FMGs expressed that instead of scrapping the provision, the commission should take responsibility for verifying the documents submitted by the students.
“For a few students who have obtained certificates maliciously, they are punishing everyone else. It is NMC's responsibility, as an authority, to verify the certificates and documents being submitted instead of banning compensatory practical training completely. NMC has already imposed up to three years of CRMI on FMGs. We demand that this notice be withdrawn immediately,” said another foreign medical graduate, who is currently undergoing the second year of CRMI, on a condition of anonymity.
