Nothing could perhaps be more soothing than the news of the resident doctors calling off the strike at a time when the threat of the third Corona wave-Omicron- is looming over the nation . The resident doctors were protesting over the unconscionable and inordinate delay in NEET-PG 2021 counselling. The threat by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) to boycott all work including emergency services as a mark of solidarity with the protesting resident doctors was a cause for consternation. The resident doctors were protesting since November 27 against the multiple postponements of the NEET-PG 2021 counselling and the resultant delay in admission of the fresh batch of doctors in medical colleges. It’s a happy augury that with the timely personal intervention and solemn assurance of the Union Health Minister, the strike has been, for the time being, called off.
It is true that ‘Interdependence is a higher value than independence’ in the medical profession. The resident doctors are crucial for the entire healthcare system, more so when there is a threat of third Covid-19 wave from a different, but more contagious, variant. It would be worthwhile to go into the genesis of the current agitation. On July 29, 2021, the Union government issued a notification introducing two new reservations for undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses and beginning from the current academic year 2021-22. Under the notification, 10 per cent seats are reserved for economically weaker section (EWS) and 27 per cent for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) under All India Quota (AIQ). NEET-UG examination for admission to the MBBS course is conducted by the National Testing Agency, Ministry of Education while the National Board of Examination (NBE), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare conducts the NEET-PG, that is Post Graduate examination for medical and dental courses in the country. NEET-PG exam was supposed to be held in the month of January, 2021. But it was postponed to April 2021 and, in the meanwhile owing to evolving COVID-19 situation, the exam was further postponed to September 2021. The exam result came out in the following month of October. The counseling was to start from the end of October itself but it could not start as the notification was challenged in the Supreme Court by some doctors. The petitioners also challenged the reasonableness of the annual income ceiling of ₹. 8 lakh fixed to determine EWS status. After a hearing on 25 November, the Court fixed next for 6 January, 2022.
The All India Quota (AIQ) scheme was introduced in 1986 under the Supreme Court’s direction to provide for domicile-free merit-based opportunities to students from any state aspiring to study in a good medical college in any of the states. The AIQ consists of 15 per cent of the total available UG seats and 50 per cent of the total available PG seats in government medical colleges. Prior to 2007, there was no reservation in the AIQ scheme. In 2007, the Supreme Court introduced 15 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and a 7.5-per cent quota for the Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the AIQ scheme. When the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act came into force in 2007, it provided for the first time 27 per cent reservation to the OBCs. It was implemented by all the central medical educational institutions but not applied to the AIQ seats of the state medical and dental colleges. The 103rd Constitution Amendment made in 2019, provided for 10 per cent reservation for the EWS category in all central educational institutions. The number of seats in the medical and dental colleges was increased to accommodate this additional 10 per cent EWS reservation without affecting the seats of the unreserved category.
On a petition by the DMK party, the Madras High Court ruled in July 2020 that the OBCs were entitled to reservations in the AIQ seats and directed the Union Government to implement the same from the academic year 2021. The Union Government vide their notification in July, 2021 decided to provide 27 per cent reservation for OBCs and 10 per cent reservation for EWS in the AIQ seats for all the UG and PG courses from the current academic year 2021-22. Given the enormous delay in holding NEET-PG-21 counselling, the government could have taken a decision to implement these reservations from the academic year 2022-23. However, no popular government can be seen dithering and prevaricating on a highly emotive and inflammable issue of social justice, more so when elections are round the corner. The clarion call of social justice is seen as a potentially powerful ladder to secure political power. The report of Mandal Commission was pulled out of hibernation all of a sudden by VP Singh as a counter measure to save his government. Narsimha Rao, short of full parliamentary majority, introduced 10 percent reservation for the EWS apart from 27 percent reservations for the OBCs. The notification was challenged, and the Supreme Court in the famous Indra Sawhney vs Union of India, 1992, upheld 27 percent quota for the OBCs but struck down 10 percent reservation for the EWS. However, with the passage of the 103rd Constitution Amendment, the reservation for the EWS has been constitutionally guaranteed.
The resident doctors want NEET-PG-21 Counselling to start without further loss of time, which has been delayed unconscionably and inordinately for multiple reasons including the outbreak of COVID-19, and the decision to introduce reservations for the OBCs and the EWS. The academic session 2022-23 is only a few months away and given the severe constraints of infrastructure and faculty, approximately 90000 PG students cannot be catered by the system meant for 45000 students per academic year. Besides great mental agony and affliction to the students, it will have severe and adverse cascading effect on teaching and patient-treatment. To overcome the shortage of teachers, the Medical Council of India (now Medical Commission under the new Act) increased the professor-teacher ratio from 1:2 to 1:3 from the academic session 2018-19. The Professors are already overburdened and the simultaneous running of two batches, under the circumstance, would pose formidable challenges. Yet, the nation needs new batches of PG doctors. We have to stretch every nerve and harness all potential resources and capabilities to tide over the crisis. Hopefully, the judgement of the Supreme Court will resolve the matter amicably in the best and long term interest of the nation as we can ill-afford strike by our doctors waging a prolonged and precarious battle against COVID 19 and its diabolically mutating variants.
The writer is ex Addl Secretary, Lok Sabha and a member of Delhi Bar Council. Views expressed are individual.