Students Pledge News Dt 21.10.2022 – Reacting to the decision of the Madhya Pradesh government to introduce textbooks for MBBS in Hindi Language, Sourav Ghosh, the General Secretary of AIDSO has issued the following statement to the press:
“The Central government is all set to introduce Hindi and other regional languages as the medium of learning in MBBS course. In Madhya Pradesh, it has already been introduced by publishing MBBS books in Hindi, in a program held at Bhopal in presence of Central Home Minister Mr Amit Shah. The Government is trying to validate this step by claiming that it will help the students.
But in our considered opinion, studying and grasping medical science up to its highest level is very much necessary. And it is not possible to acquire comprehensive knowledge of medical science in any language other than English in our country, because most of the authoritative books, studied across the world, comprising pioneering research, inventions and discoveries in medical sciences, are written in English and the majority of the terminologies are in English and Latin. Even standardised translation of those contents are not available in Hindi or other regional languages till date. So, it is almost impossible to teach medical science in Hindi or any regional language. Further, this move will eventually create two classes of students – one section, studying in English, will go ahead for higher education, and another section, studying in Hindi or regional languages, won’t be able to go for higher education, or for that matter, will be hindered on their path to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of their field. Needless to say, if a student passes MBBS in Hindi or any other regional language, he or she shall face problems while pursuing higher studies, not only abroad, but also in other states of our country.
It’s noteworthy that not only in medical education, the NEP 2020 also says to promote the teaching and learning in higher studies in different regions in their respective regional languages. Witnessing the poor condition of most of the regional languages because of the neglecting attitude of different governments to promote it, implementing this process will create a great barrier in the teaching-learning process in these regions, thereby, leading to huge academic chaos.
Besides promoting the Hindi language, the Chief Minister of the state went a step ahead to suggest that ‘Shri Hari’ should be written in the prescription. This is unacceptable as medical science is above all religion and caste divisions. How can such a person, holding an important post, comment so irresponsibly? So, it is easily understandable that in the name of starting medical education in Hindi, they are trying to communalise and saffronise even this noble profession.
The central government is promoting these flashy moves to veil the base of medical education which is completely fragile.
Contextually, it can be mentioned here that National Medical Commission (NMC), the heinous act passed by the central government to privatise and bureaucratise medical education, is bringing about changes meant only to snatch health services away from the common people. The infrastructures of most of the medical colleges are below par, while many institutions do not have the necessary equipments or investigation facilities thereby hampering both treatment and medical education. We call upon all the medical students, doctors, health workers, and common people to unite against and resist these anti-people moves so that this noble profession of medicine is saved from the incessant attacks of communal forces.
