While the country is experiencing a surge of COVID-19 cases and a night curfew has been imposed in the National Capital, resident doctors are out protesting for their rights in Delhi. The situation isn’t an ideal one. But how did we land here and why are the doctors protesting.
Why are the doctors protesting?
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate) (or NEET (PG)), a qualifying and ranking examination for medical students, who want to pursue various postgraduate Doctor of Medicine (MD), Master of Surgery (MS) and diploma courses in medical colleges across the country.
The examination was supposed to take place in January 2021, but was postponed several times and took place only in September this year.
But it didn’t end here. NEET PG 2021 counselling hasn’t taken place till now. A batch of petitions had come in before the Supreme Court challenging a July 29 notification providing NEET PG medical seat reservation — 27% for OBC and 10% for EWS students.
The NEET PG 2021 counselling was supposed to have taken place on October 25, but was postponed due to the pleas made before the Supreme Court, and the Centre assured that the counselling won’t go ahead until the issue was resolved.
What is the issue?
There is an issue regarding the threshold for deciding who qualifies as EWS. The government fixed a RS 8 lakh annual income limit to identify the economically weaker section (EWS) for providing a 10 percent quota in entrance examinations or public jobs.
The Supreme Court took a grim view of the Centre’s inability to explain the exercise conducted before arriving at the income threshold. The Court had asked the government, “You cannot just pick ₹8 lakh out of the thin air and fix it as a criterion. There has to be some basis, some study. Tell us whether any demographic study or data was taken into account in fixing the limit. How do you arrive at this exact figure? Can the Supreme Court strike down the criteria if no study was undertaken?”
Inordinate delay
Well, this is exactly the problem that the NEET PG candidates are having. The next date for hearing before the Supreme Court is January 6. Towards the fag end of November, the Union Government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, said that it had taken a “considered decision” to revisit the “criteria” for determining EWS reservation.
The Court order had then stated, “The Solicitor General states that a period of four weeks would be required for this exercise [revisiting EWS criteria] and pending its conclusion, the date for counselling shall stand postponed…” And the next date of hearing was fixed on January 6.
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Now, the NEET PG counselling is a long-drawn process. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that the government is taking all requisite steps and a suitable reply with respect to the EWS issue will be submitted to the apex court before the next date of hearing. He added, “We request the court to expedite the issue so that the counselling can be started at the earliest.”
Assuming the issue actually gets resolved on January 6, all India quota (AIQ) counselling will still take around a month and a half to conclude and then the states will start their procedure. Meanwhile, NEET PG 2022 is scheduled to be conducted on March 12. And if things go as planned, then we could actually end up in a situation where the NEET PG 2021 counselling and NEET PG 2022 counselling run parallel to each other.
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And the end of the day, it is the doctors who are the real sufferers. A precious year of their career is getting wasted because of technicalities and inordinate delay in the resolution of an issue relating to EWS notification. One can understand that legal procedure takes time but in an issue as sensitive as NEET PG counselling and the medical profession, it should have been expedited.