NMC withdraws controversial CBME guidelines amid widespread criticism
- In Reports
- 11:11 PM, Sep 12, 2024
- Myind Staff
In response to widespread criticism, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has retracted its contentious Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) Curriculum for 2024. The guidelines had initially sparked outrage by categorising lesbianism and sodomy as offences, according to a report by news agency ANI.
On Thursday, the country’s leading medical authority issued a circular announcing that the guidelines outlined in the Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) Curriculum for 2024, as detailed in the circular dated August 31, 2024, have been “withdrawn and cancelled” with immediate effect.
“The above guidelines will be revised and uploaded in due course. This issues with the approval of the competent authority,” the NMC added.
On August 31, the NMC unveiled its new Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) guidelines, intended for implementation in the MBBS curriculum for the 2024-25 academic year. However, the guidelines quickly faced criticism for categorising lesbianism and sodomy as offences within the forensic medicine and toxicology curriculum, and for referring to transgenderism as “sexual perversion.”
The new CBME guidelines also eliminated a seven-hour course focused on disabilities and disability-friendly practices from their medical ethics curriculum, as reported by The Indian Express. Furthermore, the guidelines faced backlash for reintroducing outdated concepts, such as using the hymen to define virginity in medico-legal contexts—practices that had been removed from the curriculum in 2022 following directives from the Madras High Court.
The release of the new curriculum provoked strong reactions from doctors, disability rights advocates, and LGBTQIA+ activists. Dr. Satendra Singh, co-chair of the International Council for Disability Inclusion in Medical Education, voiced his frustration on X, stating, “Why must doctors from the disability and trans community repeatedly take the NMC to court to ensure the implementation of laws already mandated?”
He was referring to a letter issued by the NMC following directives from the Madras and Kerala High Courts in 2022. The letter instructed all universities not to approve content containing “unscientific, derogatory, and discriminatory information on the LGBTQ community.”
Dr Singh added in a post on X, after the curriculum was withdrawn, “The NMC curriculum has only been withdrawn for now. We must wait to see what’s coming next and cannot afford to be complacent, as the NMC has a history of making multiple U-turns.”
Image source: HT
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