The guidelines created an uproar after the NMC reintroduced lesbianism, sodomy, and several other acts as unnatural sexual offences. It junked the guidelines on the eve of the sixth anniversary of Supreme Court decriminalising homosexuality.
Published Sep 06, 2024 | 8:38 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 06, 2024 | 1:54 PM
The National Medical Commission (NMC) has withdrawn the Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME), 2024, guidelines following widespread criticism.
The guidelines, issued on 31 August, created an uproar after the NMC reintroduced lesbianism, sodomy, and several other acts as unnatural sexual offences in the forensic science and toxicology curriculum for MBBS students.
On Thursday, 5 September, NMC said the circular notifying the guidelines “stands withdrawn and cancelled” with immediate effect. It added that the guidelines would be “revised and reissued in due course”.
However, rights activists remained sceptical since they felt the NMC was known for making many U-turns.
Incidentally, NMC junked the guidelines on the sixth anniversary eve of the Supreme Court decriminalising homosexuality in India.
The Supreme Court on 6 September 2018 ruled that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised same-sex relations between consenting adults was unconstitutional.
The CBME guidelines, aimed at equipping MBBS students with essential skills to meet India’s healthcare needs, sparked controversy for classifying certain acts as sexual offenses in the Forensic Medicine syllabus.
NMC notification withdrawing the controversial guidelines.
Transgender and disability rights groups in India and abroad decried the discriminatory and outdated guidelines as they contradicted the country’s modern legal outlook on LGBTQ+ rights.
The International Council for Disability Inclusion in Medical Education and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) voiced strong opposition to CBME guidelines.
They criticised the guidelines as “ableist” and “transphobic,” noting that they violated the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPDA), 2016, and the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.
Both organisations threatened to complain to the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME), urging the temporary suspension of NMC’s recognition.
The curriculum, to be effective from the 2024-24 academic year, was structured into three phases over 4.5 years. Phase I was envisaged to span 12 months, focusing on foundational subjects such as Anatomy, Physiology, and Biochemistry, while the 12-month phase II included Pathology, Microbiology, and Pharmacology.
Phase III, lasting 30 months, was divided into Part I and Part II, covering clinical subjects such as General Medicine, Surgery, Paediatrics, and Forensic Medicine.
The curriculum update came five years after the implementation of the CBME framework. It also incorporated feedback to make education more learner-centric and aligned with global standards.
Incidentally, even the latest editions of several forensic medicine textbooks, published after the 2018 Supreme Court judgement, still discussed unnatural sexual offences—sodomy, tribadism/lesbianism, bestiality, and buccal/oral coitus. Educational YouTube videos also continued to portray those acts as offences.
One controversial section of the curriculum, FM8.4, instructed students to “describe and discuss adultery and unnatural sexual offences,” including sodomy, incest, lesbianism, and bestiality, along with other topics like the preparation of reports and handling trace evidence in such cases.
The guidelines also called for discussions on various sexual behaviours, such as fetishism, voyeurism, masochism, necrophilia, and exhibitionism.
Dr Satendra Singh, a disability rights activist, responded to the withdrawal of the guidelines with caution. “We must wait to see what’s coming next and cannot afford to be complacent, as the NMC has a history of making multiple U-turns,” he said on X.
In an earlier post, he said the now-withdrawn NMC guidelines contradicted the council’s previous instructions.
“Social responsiveness is missing from the NMC’s new CBME 2024 curriculum. This is a significant letdown in terms of social responsibility. The NMC violates the Transgender Persons Protection Act, 2019,” he said on X.
“After being admonished by the Madras and Kerala high courts, the NMC issued a letter to all medical universities instructing them not to approve content that contains ‘unscientific, derogatory, and discriminatory’ information on the LGBTQ community,” Dr Singh said, citing an NMC letter dated, October 2021.
“How many health professionals from the LGBTQIA+ community were involved in this NMC committee on queer issues? Zero,” he added.
“Take note of the chairperson of this committee, who was a UGMEB NMC member. Under these new regulations, signed by the Chair of this committee, the NMC requires faculty to teach MBBS students in Forensic Medicine in 2024 that ‘sodomy’ and ‘lesbianism’ are sexual offences (FM 8.4), and that ‘transvestism’ (cross-dressing) is a ‘sexual perversion’ (FM 8.7),” he pointed out.
Incidentally, the controversial guidelines came even as the world has been discussing symbiosexuality, following a study by researchers at Seattle University.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
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