Five and a half years of study, one year of internship — the path towards becoming a qualified doctor is quite straightforward for medical students in India.
However, this journey is not so cut-and-dry for foreign medical graduates, who often have to grapple with detrimental policies and an apathetic system.
In the last few years, FMGs faced significant disruptions in their medical education abroad due to various factors out of their control, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Due to this, many FMGs studying in China or Ukraine had to be evacuated from these countries and complete part of their medical education online.
Reacting to this situation, the National Medical Commission mandated three years of internship service for FMGs as they “missed out” on practical clinical training to be eligible for medical registration, as opposed to one year for their Indian counterparts.
This is also made worse by inconsistent internship laws across states, as FMG internships are governed by state medical councils.
Two FMGs EdexLive spoke to, Shivam Sharma from Haryana, who studied in Ukraine and Rohit Tekade, from Maharashtra, who studied in China, were assigned three-year internships, while their batchmates from states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu received shorter internship periods.
Due to this, FMGs who finished their medical education in these trying times find themselves having to spend twice the usual time required to get registered as doctors and become eligible to practice in India.
Rohit, for instance, who began his medical journey in 2017, would end up spending 10 years to finally be registered as a doctor.
In some states, FMGs are allotted one year of internship, and two years of what is termed as “clerkship”. However, there is virtually no difference between the two, and any distinction exists in name only.
Take the case of Adarsh, who hails from Madhya Pradesh and received his medical education from China, who is one of the FMGs stuck in this quandary.
He tells EdexLive that FMGs are made to perform the same duties for three years despite an on-paper distinction, and are even made to pay Rs 4,000 for clerkship registration.
Due to these guidelines, FMGs end up doing nearly 3,000 hours of Internship duty, which can only be termed as bonded labour.
Moreover, these young medical aspirants receive little support from regulatory bodies, who often turn a blind eye to their exploitation and a deaf ear to their repeated complaints.
According to Adarsh, officials from the NMC told him that nobody asked him to go to China for his medical undergraduate, and that he has to now “face the consequences” when he attempted to seek relief from the regulatory body.
Thus, they filed a petition with the Madhya Pradesh High Court, questioning the lack of uniformity of internship periods for FMGs across states.
While the court also acknowledged this lack of parity and questioned the sudden policy changes, the MP Medical Council and the NMC are seeking more time to provide their response.
FMGs say that the extended period of internships feels like they are being punished for choosing to study medicine abroad, and for factors beyond their control. For them, this extension only delays their career progression, as most of them are planning to appear for NEET-PG, and can only do so upon the completion of their internships.
It is only ironic that FMGs, who chose to study abroad due to the unavailability of MBBS seats in India, end up having their entry into India’s medical system delayed.
