'Online classes not beneficial': Indian medical students rescued from Ukraine await concrete solution

Uncertainty still looms over the careers of thousands of Indian medical students who were rescued from war-torn Ukraine. They are still waiting for a concrete policy that could give them an option of absorption in medical schools at home and a smooth transfer permission policy for other European nations.

When the Ukraine-Russian war began, the country was praying for the safe return of thousands of Indian medical students studying in Ukraine. Many of them living in cities such as Kharkiv were stranded inside bunkers. Through a mammoth rescue mission Operation Ganga the Indian government brought these students back home. Hundred days after the war broke out, now these medical students are eagerly looking toward the central government, its health and education ministry and the National Medical Commission (NMC). They say: resolve the uncertainty looming over our careers.

In the past three months, several state governments, including Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand have written letters to the central government, urging it to formulate a policy that can ensure the continuation of studies of Ukraine returnee medical students. The NMC had allowed Ukraine medical graduates to complete their 12-month internship in India.

As per the NMC rules, the foreign medical graduates are required to complete their 12-month internship at the institutes from which they graduated and then only they become eligible for the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE). The NMC made an exception for the medical students rescued from Ukraine on humanitarian grounds.

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However, those students -- whose studies are still going on continue to stay in the lurch. The Parents' Association of the Ukraine MBBS students has been holding communications with the health ministry, education ministry, and the NMC in order to resolve the crisis.

As per the parents' association data, nearly 18,000 medical students were rescued from Ukraine, of which nearly 3,000 are final-year students who would get their degrees in October 2022. Nearly 2,000 of these students are seeking direct transfer permission to other European nations and don’t wish to get absorbed at the Indian medical schools.

The parents' association has been proposing that there are nearly 595 medical schools in India government and private medical schools—and if four to five Ukraine returnee students are accommodated per batch per college, then the crisis can be resolved.