NEW DELHI: Bowing down to nationwide condemnation from disability rights experts and LGBTQ activists, the National Medical Commission (NMC) on Thursday announced that they have withdrawn and cancelled the revised MBBS curriculum. was the first to break the story on September 1 that the MBBS students in the 2024 course will be taught that sodomy and lesbianism are unnatural sexual offences and transvestism is a sexual perversion along with fetishism, voyeurism, sadism, necrophagia, masochism, exhibitionism, frotteurism and necrophilia.The revised MBBS curriculum proposed by the NMC sparked immediate controversy, with activists arguing that it does not adequately safeguard the rights of individuals with disabilities and those who identify as LGBTQ.In a circular, the NMC Academic Cell, Under Graduate Medical Education Board, said that the Competency Based Medical Education Curriculum (CBME) Guidelines, 2024 published on August 31 has been withdrawn.“It is informed that the Circular of even number dated 31.08.2024 thereby issuing Guidelines under Competency Based Medical Education Curriculum (CBME) 2024, stands “WITHDRAWN AND CANCELLED” with immediate effect. The above guidelines will be revised and uploaded in due course,” said the circular issued by Shambhu Sharan Kumar, Director, UGMEB. Dr Satendra Singh, a prominent disability activist, who was the first to flag the issue, said, “The NMC curriculum has only been withdrawn for now. 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 the revised curriculum regressed the progress made in recent years towards the inclusion of people with disabilities and LGBTQ rights.
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