Students evacuated from war-torn Ukraine staged a demonstration here Friday to gain admission to medical colleges across the country. They have urged the government to accommodate the students once to avoid loss of academic year.
The MBBS students and their parents from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan gathered here outside the National Medical Commission and staged a protest. “Since all students are future doctors, online education is not a good option for them. Our demand is to accommodate all students in Indian medical colleges,” said a statement from the Parents’ Association of Ukrainian Medical Students.
RB Gupta, president of the association, said: “We are gathered here to seek government assistance in housing our children. My child is a sophomore studying in Ivano. We are only asking the government to accommodate these children once.” Meanwhile, the students said they were concerned about their future as the war in Ukraine continues.
“We don’t know when this war will end. Our studies are affected. Our parents have invested so much money and many have also taken out loans, everything will be lost if we cannot continue the study. So the government has to accommodate us’, says a 5th-year MBBS student, who does not want to be named.
Vaishali, another student, said that even if the war ends in Ukraine in the near future, universities there will need time to return to normal. “Our future is at stake here. Universities will need time to return to the normal academic schedule, even after the war is over. In that case, our year will be lost. We are calling on the government to help us, she said.
Thousands of students from India studying at various medical colleges in Ukraine were forced to give up their studies and return home after Russian forces launched an offensive against the country. Also in April, the parents of MBBS students staged a protest at Jantar Mantar demanding government intervention to accommodate their children in medical universities.
Earlier in March, a PIL was filed with the Supreme Court seeking guidance on the issue of admitting and continuing studies in the country of Indian medical students who had been evacuated from Ukraine. The ad also called for instructions to the Center to offer an orientation program on the equivalence of medical subjects for admission into the Indian curriculum.
The Indian Medical Association has also recommended Prime Minister Narendra Modi to admit such students to Indian medical colleges as a one-time measure. In a letter to Modi on March 4, the IMA had said that such students should be allowed to attend Indian medical colleges for the remainder of their MBBS courses through appropriate paid distribution, but this should not be seen as an increase of the annual recording capacity.
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