NEW DELHI: NEET-UG counselling for 2025 is scheduled to begin on July 21. However, thousands of medical students with disabilities are in a dilemma as they are still awaiting the revised admission guidelines.
It is not just the revised disability guidelines that the National Medical Commission (NMC) has yet to release, despite the Supreme Court's directions to issue them much before the MBBS admission process was to begin. There is no clarity on the number of disability assessment centres, which evaluate individuals with disabilities, determine their needs and eligibility, and accordingly reissue disability certificates.
Speaking with this paper, Dr Satendra Singh, a prominent disability activist, said, “The NMC recently issued guidelines on student mental health, but what about the extreme stress, anxiety, and uncertainty faced by approximately 3,673 NEET-qualified candidates with disabilities?”
“The continued delay in issuing revised disability guidelines directly violates at least three Supreme Court judgments. Shouldn’t the Supreme Court initiate contempt proceedings against the NMC and the DGHS (Directorate General of Health Services) for their willful non-compliance?"
Dr Singh, who has been besieged by calls and messages from parents and anxious students suffering from disabilities like locomotor disability, visual impairment, hearing impairment, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) etc, which was to be included in the new guidelines as mandated by the Supreme Court, said NMC should have placed these guidelines at least a month before the admission process was to begin to allow stakeholders to give their feedback.
“This demonstrates disregard for transparency, public participation, and the rule of law,” he said.
Speaking with this paper, Kerala-based Athul S Anil, said he was rejected in the state counselling where the experts just glanced at him, without assessing his disability thoroughly.
He will now appear for the All India Quota Counselling, beginning Monday.
“According to Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) guidelines, I will be rejected in the All India counselling also because of my upper limb disability,” said Anil, who is missing two fingers in both his hands.
“Most upper limb disability and vision-related cases get rejected. If the NMC had brought out new guidelines, it would have helped my case,” said the dejected 18-year-old, who suffers from congenital limb deficiency with hypoplastic digits with contracture of right elbow, a condition in which a child is born with an underdeveloped or missing limb, specifically with the presence of abnormally small or incomplete digits, and a restricted range of motion in the elbow joint.
But, according to Dr Singh, who is the founder of Doctors with Disabilities: Agents of Change, a biggest pan-India group of health professionals with disabilities in India striving for social justice, Anil’s admission cannot be rejected.
He cited a similar case of Kabir Paharia, who qualified in the NEET-UG examination last year and got a seat in AIIMS under the SC-Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) category, but was rejected because of his disability. PwBD refers to individuals with a minimum of 40% of a specified disability, as certified by a competent authority.
Paharia, who suffers from a congenital absence of multiple fingers in both hands as well as involvement of the left foot (2nd and 3rd toes), won the case from the Supreme Court, and will now take admission in AIIMS this year.
Nasib Rehan, 19 years, who got (Person with Disability) (All India Rank) 752, said that the lack of information and clarity from official authorities is very stressful and affecting his mental health.
Rehan has muscular dystrophy in both lower limbs, a group of genetic diseases that cause progressive weakness and wasting of the muscles in the legs and hips.
Rehan, a resident of Bettiah, West Champaran, Bihar, whose father is a farmer, said that the official NEET-UG prospectus has not been released yet, and he has no clear idea about what new rules or regulations might be added this year.
“The uncertainty regarding eligibility pattern, or medical criteria, is making me anxious and distressed,” he told this paper.
Dr Singh said, “NMC is quick to demand Yoga Day celebration reports, same-day uploads, no less. But when it comes to obeying Supreme Court orders on new disability guidelines, it’s radio silence.”
On May 16, the Supreme Court had said that “no deserving disabled candidate should be denied admission to undergraduate medical courses.”
“We further direct that the NMC shall forthwith and not later than within a period of two months from today, and at any cost before the counselling for the 2025-2026 session, shall commence, complete the process of revising the guidelines so that no deserving candidate in the PwBD category is denied admission into the MBBS course despite his/her/their entitlement,” the apex court had said.