New Delhi, 5 April 2022 – On 3rd April 2022, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule introduced the Rural Medical Education Bill in the Lok Sabha to provide tuition-waived medical seats to needy candidates from rural districts in India. Via her Twitter handle she stated, “Introduced The Rural Medical Education Bill, 2022 – seeks to provide tuition-waived medical seats to needy candidates from rural districts in India, on the condition that they will practice and provide care to people in their home district for a minimum duration of time.”
With this comes the added benefit of receiving healthcare from doctors from ones own community and area, who are more likely to understand its intricacies and context. pic.twitter.com/TUsus9p191
— Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) April 3, 2022
Why the Rural Medical Education Bill and its Benefits
The doctor-patient ratio in many parts of rural India is as low as 1:25,000. Pointing out this stark picture in Lok Sabha, Sule stated that the problem lies in the poor distribution of healthcare personnel. A majority of them prefer practising medicine and healthcare support provision in urban or major metropolitan areas where medicines and other facilities are readily available.
Such actions create a domino effect, which consequently leads to 2 serious issues:
- Over-saturation of doctors practising in cities
- Dangerously low number of doctors and healthcare experts in rural areas
The minister added that this step of introducing this bill has been taken with an aim to provide quality medical education, so that the 65% of the Indian population that lives in rural areas does not struggle for adequate healthcare facilities. The implementation of the Rural Medical Education Bill would ensure that people living in rural areas receive proper health care from doctors belonging to their own communities and areas, who are more likely to understand its details and context.
Rural Medical Education Bill – Proposal
There are several proposals that Sule had underlined and presented to the Lok Sabha via the Rural Medical Education Bill. Some of the key aspects include:
- The concerned government (State or Central government) shall bear the entire expenditure of the rural students, obtaining a medical degree under the rural quota.
- The bill proposes to waive the complete medical tuition fee along with other super specialities or postgraduate degrees in any discipline of medical sciences.
- The proposal also points out to the government to take responsibility for the rural students’ lodging or boarding costs till the time the student completes his or her medical degree.
- Not just taking advantage of the government, the proposal also specifies that the students will be performing obligatory rural services with either the State or Central government (under the government the student shall be studying) for a minimum of 6 years.
How is the Rural Medical Education Bill Different from MBBS Bond Service Policy?
The objectives of the proposal are highly similar to the MBBS bond service policy, where the latter is mandatory and any student failing to submit the Bond within the stipulated time is barred/not considered eligible to sit for the medical examination and strict actions are taken against them. However, the Rural Medical Education Bill is presented to be a bit different from the perspective of the penalty.
Penalties
- The proposal in the bill states that in case the students fail to serve the State or Central government for the stipulated 6 years, the medical licences of those students will be cancelled.
- Added to it, the students shall have to pay the entire expenditure borne by the appropriate government on their medical education as a fine.
Salient Features of Rural Medical Education Bill
