Medical Council of India amends postgraduate admission rules as per RPWD 2016

The Medical Council of India has amended its Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations as per the provisions of the Right of Persons with Disabilities 2016, Act.

This step was taken five months after a medical student with thalassemia appealed to the Supreme Court for a disability certificate for quota in admission to a postgraduate course.

The change in the regulations now allow for 5% seats to be filled every year by students with disabilities.

Until now the quota was limited to only 3%, and that too only for people with locomotor disability.

The petition was filed by Rohan Jobaputra from Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Rohan has thalassemia major and was not allowed to apply within the disability quota for the post-graduate courses as the RPWD 2016 was yet to be adapted and implemented.

The earlier rules allowed for only seven disabilities. The Act has raised the number of benchmark disabilities to 21.

This has allowed more disabled students to seek the benefit of reservation in higher education institutions.

However, delay in the implementation of the Act has led to loss of opportunities for disabled people.