The National Medical Commission (NMC), the country’s apex medical education regulator, has updated its forensic medicine and toxicology curriculum for undergraduate students.
The revised medical syllabus has reintroduced controversial topics, including labeling sodomy and lesbianism as unnatural sexual offenses, while also removing training on disability.
It has also brought back topics such as the hymen and its type, and its medico-legal importance besides defining virginity and defloration, legitimacy and its medico-legal importance.
Topics reintroduced in the syllabus include the importance of the hymen, defining virginity and defloration, its legitimacy and medico-legal significance.
These subjects were scrapped and a new module was brought in 2022 on the orders of the Madras High Court
The updated curriculum in forensic medicine and toxicology also covers "legal competencies, including Bharatiya Nagarika Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA)," as well as "Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), civil and criminal cases, inquests (police and magistrate’s inquests), and cognisable and non-cognisable offences."
It talks about discussing sexual perversions, fetishism, transvestism, voyeurism, sadism, necrophagia, masochism, exhibitionism, frotteurism, and necrophilia. However, distinctions between consensual sex between queer individuals have been removed.
What are the other amendments made to the medical curriculum?
Let’s take a look.
The revised curriculum covers topics including sexual perversions, fetishism, transvestism, voyeurism, sadism, necrophagia, masochism, exhibitionism, frotteurism, and necrophilia, according to PTI.
Adultery, along with offenses such as incest and bestiality, is also listed under unnatural sexual offenses in the revised curriculum.
According to a report, the distinction between consensual sex among queer individuals has been removed.
According to a newspaper report, the revised syllabus has removed the seven-hour disability training and eliminated disability-related topics from the medical ethics module.
The updated psychiatry module no longer includes detailed discussions on topics such as the difference between sex and gender identity, as well as common myths and misconceptions. Additionally, it does not specify that students should be educated about “gender identity disorders.”
Students will be educated about the provisions for rape, injury, and protection of children from sexual offenses.
The result is a curriculum focused on outcomes that aligns with global trends. It emphasizes the alignment and integration of subjects both horizontally and vertically, while still acknowledging the importance of subject-specific instruction and assessment.
Distinctions were also made between sexual fetishes like voyeurism, exhibitionism, or masochism and mental disorders originating from such unusual interests.
The two-finger test for virginity was described as “unscientific, inhuman, and discriminatory”.
The psychiatry module included changes to help students better grasp topics such as sex, gender identity and sexual orientation, the newspaper noted.
The undergraduate medical education programme is designed to create an “Indian Medical Graduate” (IMG) possessing requisite knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and responsiveness, so that she or he may function appropriately and effectively as a physician of first contact of the community while being globally relevant.
“To achieve this, the following national and institutional goals for the learner of the Indian Medical Graduate training program are hereby prescribed.
”The first contact physician needs to be skilful to perform duties of primary care physician and have requisite skills for promotive, preventative, rehabilitative, palliative care and referral services,” the document said.
The NMC stated in a document that the curriculum should enable students to understand the “medico-legal framework of medical practice, codes of conduct, medical ethics, professional misconduct, and medical negligence.”
The regulator stated in its Competency-Based Medical Education Curriculum (CBME) Guidelines, 2024, that it was necessary to review and update all aspects of the existing regulations and guidelines to align with changing demographics, socio-economic conditions, perceptions, values, advancements in medical education, and stakeholder expectations.
Disability rights activists have criticized the new guidelines. In a letter to Union Health Minister JP Nadda, Dr. Satendra Singh, a disability rights activist, and Dr. Sanjay Sharma from the Association of Transgender Health in India, raised concerns, stating, “These competencies should have been integrated longitudinally throughout the curriculum but are conspicuously absent from the 2024 curriculum.”
The letter also appealed to the Union Health Minister to use his influence to correct this issue, noting that it not only directly affects persons with disabilities, transgender and gender-diverse individuals, and those with differences in sexual orientation and sex development, but also harms the nation’s image on the international stage.
The undergraduate medical education programme is designed with the goal of creating an “Indian Medical Graduate” (IMG) possessing requisite knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and responsiveness, so that she or he may function appropriately and effectively as a physician of first contact of the community while being globally relevant.
“The first contact physician needs to be skilled in performing the duties of a primary care physician and must possess the necessary skills for promotive, preventive, rehabilitative, palliative care, and referral services,” the document stated.
Input From Various Sources
(Rehash/Simran Sethi/MSM)
