Future of foreign medical graduates in Andhra hangs in balance as they are denied PR numbers
The graduates have been staging protests since Tuesday, in front of the NTR University of Health Sciences in Vijayawada, trying to gain attention to their plight
Foreign Medical Graduates staging a protest in front of the Dr. N.T.R. University of Health Sciences in Vijayawada.
| Photo Credit: K.V.S. GIRI
Around 70 medical graduates in the State, who completed their degrees abroad, mostly from Central Asian countries, have been put through untold misery for the past three months due to uncertainty over Permanent Registration (PR) numbers.
To get a PR number, after returning to India, the candidate has to clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE), get the pass certificate and other details and submit them to the State Medical Council. Once the counselling is held, the candidate has to do a one-year internship at an allotted college. It is only after the completion of the internship that they get their PR number, which is a must to practice or study further in the country.
However, the 70-odd graduates, who have completed their internships by May 2024, are yet to get their PRs from the A.P. Medical Council. “When we asked the officials in May, we were told we would get them in a month. More than two months have passed since then and we are still waiting for our PRs,” said Karthik (name changed), who studied at a recognised university in Kyrgyzstan from 2016 to 2022.
He added: “It is a six-year course there. While we were in our fifth year, the pandemic struck. We left for our home, and like everyone else in India, we took online classes for 14 months. While we did 8-9 months of theory classes of the fifth year online, we completed our 3-4 months of practical sessions after going back and receiving a certificate from our parent universities stating that we successfully compensated for the practical sessions.”
After returning, when Karthik cleared the FMGE, considered one of the toughest in the country, and completed the mandatory internship in May 2024, he, like other foreign graduates, received a rude shock when the National Medical Commission issued a notification on June 7 that said all foreign graduates have to compulsorily go through two-year internship since the compensation certificates were not enough.
“Even Indian students took their classes online during the pandemic. But they were not asked to undergo a two-year internship,” Karthik said.
After country-wide protests calling out the NMC for discriminating against foreign medical graduates, the controversial notification was withdrawn and the NMC issued another notification on June 17, clarifying that those who have “sufficiently compensated classes in physical onsite in-lieu of online classes” can undergo one-year internship.
While other States such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Telangana have followed this guideline and given PR numbers to those who have produced compensation certificates and completed their one-year internships, Andhra Pradesh has yet to give the PR numbers.
“Here, the officials have understood the June 17 notification differently and said since we did not compensate for the lost ‘duration’ of 14 months, we cannot get PR numbers. They want us to undergo another year of internship,” added another medical graduate, who also did not want to be named.
“We have met the Health Minister, Human Resource Development Minister and MLAs, but there has not been any response from their side. For three months, we have been sitting unemployed without a PR number. A bigger problem is that we all took the NEET on August 11, and the results are expected this week. Without a PR, we cannot attend counselling even if we get a good rank,” Karthik said, adding that one year would be wasted if they do not get a PR number.
The graduates also said they did not get a stipend for even a month during the internship. “Even when there are clear guidelines from the NMC on internships and stipends, none of these is being followed in Andhra Pradesh, while our batchmates from other States have got PRs and stipends,” they said, adding that because of lack of clarity on part of officials, their careers are at stake.
The graduates have been staging protests since Tuesday, in front of the NTR University of Health Sciences in Vijayawada, trying to gain attention to their plight.
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