NMC says no plan to allow MBBS course in Hindi, regional language 

NEW DELHI: Amid a major announcement by the Madhya Pradesh government to offer MBBS courses in Hindi and an intent declared by neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to do the same, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has said that it will not recognise it under the rules.The medical education regulator clarified that there is no plan to amend norms to allow medicine courses in languages other than English. 

On the occasion of Hindi Diwas on September 14, MP’s medical education minister Vishwas Sarang had said a committee was being formed to decide on how to introduce MBBS courses, apart from paramedical courses, in Hindi in the state. In UP, too, a proposal to introduce the medicine course in Hindi is actively being considered.

Talking to this newspaper, Aruna V Vanikar, president of the undergraduate medical education board at NMC, said no state government had so far approached the commission with such a proposal, neither was that feasible.“The rules do not approve teaching-learning MBBS in any other language other than English and there is no plan to change the existing norms,” she said. “If any state government goes ahead and introduces such a course, it will not be recognised by the NMC.” 

Sources in Union education ministry, meanwhile, pointed out that the National Education Policy adopted by the Centre last year had a component of promoting technical education — including medicine, law and engineering courses — in mother tongue. A high-level committee under higher education secretary Amit Khare was set up last year to make suggestions and subsequently 14 engineering institutions, beginning this year, started offering the BTech course in 5 regional languages. 

Experts, however, said offering medicine in mother tongue might be trickier and the experiment is unlikely to work. In 2016, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hindi University in MP had announced engineering and medical education in Hindi. But it could never start the MBBS course in Hindi as it didn’t get the permission from the Medical Council of India, the medical education regulator then.