'WE ARE CONSIDERED OUTSIDERS'

Medical students who returned to India before completing their programmes abroad due to Covid or war have had to pay for internships even in public medical colleges. Frequent policy changes about their future haven't helped.

- R. Radhika

While undergraduate medical education typically lasts five-and-a-half years, for Pavandeep Singh it has stretched to eight years with no income in sight.

Singh, who in the final year of MBBS came back to India from China in 2021, not only took six years to complete MBBS thanks to Covid, but also had to do a two-year internship in India, made mandatory for foreign medical graduates (FMGs) by the National Medical Commission.

Medical students affected by Covid-related travel restrictions and the Ukraine war were allowed to complete their compulsory internship India, however, the council mandated a two-year internship after their MBBS, in place of the usual one year to make up for the loss of clinical training during online classes.

Unlike Indian medical students who are paid a stipend during their internship, foreign medical students are being asked to pay a heavy amount as internship fees instead. This is despite the NMC, in May, 2022, instructing state directorates of medical education to ensure that no internship fee is charged from any group of interns and to ensure that stipend and other facilities are provided to FMGs, on par with their Indian counterparts.

No stipends

That's not how things worked out for Singh.

"In 2021, I got my first internship in a private medical college after paying Rs.50,000 and did not receive a single penny as stipend. For my second internship, I paid Rs.20,000 and received no stipend even though there are NMC guidelines that ensure stipends for FMGs," said Singh who is currently in his second internship at Dr. BR Ambedkar State Institute of Medical Sciences, Mohali, Punjab. His internship will end in November.