A troubling pattern over the last few years has been the sacrifice of merit in the name of providing students access to postgraduate medical courses. The final round of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) PG counselling is when the floodgates open, as they did again this year. The cut-off score for the general and economically weaker sections dropped to the 7th percentile from the 50th; for persons with disabilities in the general category, to the 5th from the 45th; and for other backward classes and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes to zero from the 40th.
A zero percentile translates to a score of -40 out of 800 in the qualifying exam, since it carries negative marking. If the zero percentile for the reserved categories drew eyeballs this time, the bigger jaw-dropper came in 2023, when candidates across categories who had effectively flunked the exam—scoring -40—were rendered eligible for PG courses.
Such absurdities occur when a large number of seats remain vacant despite multiple rounds of counselling; the vacancy this time was around 18,000. Most of these seats are in private colleges, often located in remote areas with inadequate facilities and faculty. They also charge exorbitant fees and pressure the government, through bodies such as the Indian Medical Association, to lower the qualifying score to fill seats. Dr Rohan Krishnan, chief patron and co-founder of the Federation of All India Medical Association, which is leading the current pushback, flags the admission of candidates with negative marks as a threat to patient safety and public health, particularly affecting vulnerable sections. He attributes this to the mindless mushrooming of PG seats—from 31,185 in 2014 to 82,059 now—and the compromising of exam integrity to fill them.
On the flip side is the argument that filling vacant seats with qualified MBBS doctors helps increase the number of resident doctors, addressing staff shortages and enhancing patient care. It also gives late bloomers another chance to upgrade their skills. Clinical seats tend to fill quickly; it is the pre- and para-clinical seats that remain vacant after the second round. Integrating this category with the clinical workforce could be a way forward. Medicine is a people-facing profession built on trust. PG anomalies must not be allowed to weaken that bond.