Thursday, 27 June 2013

PRESCRIPTION FOR MAKING ACCESS TO MEDICAL EDUCATION ELITIST AND BIGOTED.


Since, the Brahmin and Baniya led "twice born" upper caste controlled Indian mainstream media never publish opinion that is inimical to the interests of Hinduism and Brahmin bigotry, I will be publishing my letters to "The Hindu" and other mainstream Indian newspapers which never get published due to this fiendish intellectual exclusion practiced by the bigoted Indian mainstream media. One such letter is given below: 


June 26, 2013

The Editor 
The Hindu

Dear Madam / Sir,

This letter is with regards to the opinion article titled "Doctors by merit, not privilege" by Sujatha Rao (The Hindu, June 26, 2013). 

Ms.Rao advocates an "entry" and "exit" exam based on "third party certification" which sounds draconian and elitist in a country like India which suffers from acute shortage of doctors, a deplorable situation which demands facilitation and widening of access to medical education but not putting up more bars to accessing medical education through draconian entrances tests. Even in the UK, a country cited by Ms.Rao as an example in her essay, there is no "entry" or exit" exam to enter or leave medical colleges except the regular university examinations taken by medical students. Students are admitted to MBBS and its equivalent courses in the UK based on their grades in their higher secondary exams (which are referred to as "A" level exams in UK) just as it is done in states like Tamil Nadu in India which has refused to subscribe to the NEET test. When all medical graduates are subjected to rigorous written, oral and clinical examinations by the concerned University every year of their study and at the end of their studies in the final year, where is the need for “exit” exams through "third party certification" as suggested by Ms.Rao? Why is Ms.Rao advocating entry and entrances exams through "third party certification" when the teachers, lecturers and professors who teach the medical students (along with external examiners from other medical colleges) are well equipped to test the knowledge of the medical students? Ms.Rao's prescription will only end up making medical education as an elitist preserve of urban upper castes who can avail the expensive prep schools to crack the elitist and draconian entrance tests and indulge in nepotism amongst themselves to exclude the masses from medical education, which will have a deleterious effect in the advancement of public health care.

Without any "entrance" or "exit" tests but through rigorous affirmative action for backward caste and scheduled caste students, Tamil Nadu state has made relatively significant progress in public health care and in the standard of Government Hospitals (compared to other states) which has been lauded by no less an institution than the reputed international medical journal "Lancet" (as reported in "The Hindu" in the news report titled "The Lancet calls state's healthcare programme a success story", The Hindu, May 21, 2013). Scores of Tamil Nadu medical graduates are enjoying stellar careers in western nations and Chennai has also become a “medical city” and a nerve centre for “medical tourism” apart from becoming a citadel of scores of multi-speciality corporate hospitals, mainly because of the reservation (affirmative action) in medical college admissions to backward castes and scheduled castes which widened access to medical education and produced a huge number of doctors specializing in various medical super-specialties over the past six decades, which has boosted up the standard of medical education and medical profession both in the private sector and the public sector, which has led many westerners and foreigners from every corner of the World to choose hospitals in Tamil Nadu and Chennai for their medical or surgical treatment. This would not have been possible if an urban upper caste elitist monopoly was allowed in medical education through draconian, unnecessary and super-elitist entrance tests and exit tests as advocated by Ms.Sujatha Rao. The gains made by Tamil Nadu in public health care and private medical services are in serious jeopardy because the Brahmin and upper caste led central government bureaucracy and top judiciary are trying to scuttle social justice and the reservation (affirmative action) regime in state medical colleges for backward castes and scheduled castes by bringing in an "All India" entrance test, which would only serve as a bigoted filtering mechanism to keep out students from backward caste and scheduled caste backgrounds from the annals of higher professional medical education, which will seriously impede the standards and progress made by Tamil Nadu in public health care and medical education. 

Yours truly, 
Dr. Iniyan Elango, MBBS, LLM, Diploma in Counselling (UK), Diploma in Venereology and Genito Urinary Medicine (UK)

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