Ukraine-returned medical students stage protest, seek admission in Indian medical colleges

NEW DELHI: Students who were evacuated from war-torn Ukraine staged a demonstration here on Friday, seeking admission to medical colleges across the country. They have urged the government that the students be accommodated as a one-time measure to prevent academic year loss. The MBBS students and their parents from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, gathered outside the National Medical Commission here and staged a protest.

"As all students are future doctors, online education is not a good option for them. Our demand is to accommodate all the students in Indian medical colleges," said a statement issued by the Parents' Association of Ukraine Medical Students. RB Gupta, President of the association said, "We are gathered here to seek government help in accommodation of our children. My child is a second-year student who is studying in Ivano. We are just requesting the government that these children should be accommodated as a one-time measure."

Meanwhile, the students said they were worried about their future as the war in Ukraine is still raging on. "We dont know when this war will end. Our studies are getting affected. Our parents have invested so much money and many have also taken loans, all will go to waste if we will not be able to continue the study. So the government should accomodate us," said a 5th-year MBBS student, who did not wish to be named. Vaishali, another student, said even if the war ends in Ukraine in the near future, the Universities there will take time to get back to normal. "Our future is at stake here. Universities will take time to get back to normal academic schedule even if the war ends. In that case, our year will be lost. We appeal to the government to help us,” she said.

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Thousands of students from India studying in various medical colleges in Ukraine had to abandon their courses and return home after Russian forces launched an offensive against the country. In April too, the parents of MBBS students staged a protest at Jantar Mantar demanding the government's intervention to accommodate their children in medical colleges.

Earlier in March, a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions on the issue of admission and continuation of studies in the country of Indian medical students who were evacuated from Ukraine. The plea also sought directions to the Centre to provide a medical subject equivalency orientation programme for admitting them in the Indian curriculum.

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The Indian Medical Association has also recommended to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that such students should be accommodated in Indian medical colleges as a one-time measure. In a letter to Modi on March 4, the IMA had said that such students should be permitted to go to Indian medical colleges for the remainder of their MBBS courses through an “appropriate disbursed distribution”, but it should not be seen as an increase in the annual intake capacity.