Medical Council of India agrees to lift ban on colour blind studying medicine

People with colour vision deficiency now face no barriers in studying medicine in India.

After a recommendation from the Supreme Court-appointed committee of doctors to lift the ban, the Medical Council of India has agreed to allow them to study medicine.

The MCI said that a formal decision would be taken in its academic general body meeting to be held in October. The screening for colour blindness has already been done away with for NEET, the entrance examination for admission to medical courses.

The MCI had earlier said that people with CVD would not be able to do fair diagnosis of a disease as it depended upon colour detection. But the committee said that the diagnostic and treatment process is not only dependent on the ability to judge colours. There are many other cues from history of illness.

India is the only country where the colour blind are denied admission in medical colleges as CVD is not considered as a criterion for rejection to study medicine in the US, UK and other western countries.