Expressing concerns over the exclusion of key provisions from the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPDA), 2016, and the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act (TPA), 2019, in the National Medical Commission’s revised Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) Curriculum, activists in the sector have sought intervention of Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Dr. Virendra Kumar in the matter.

In a letter to the Minister, Central Advisory Board on Disability Chairperson Dr Satendra Singh and Association for Transgender Health in India CEO Air Commodore (Retd.) Dr. Sanjay Sharma, lamented that the new curriculum fails to address critical issues affecting marginalized groups.

They pointed out that it was outdated and in contradiction with Supreme Court judgments and previous guidelines.

Although the revised curriculum was re-released, the activists said they were disheartened as it has failed to reintegrate essential disability competencies and address transgender health issues adequately.

Despite a senior NMC member acknowledging the oversight, the curriculum remains unchanged on these fronts. Also, they rued, key terms such as “dignity” and “transgender” are absent from the 466-page document, and while the curriculum now includes eight hours dedicated to sports, it has removed the previously mandated seven hours of disability competencies.

“Outdated terms like “gender identity disorders” persist in psychiatry, and intersex variations are still described as “abnormalities,” they said.

The letter underscores that the RPDA mandates integrating disability rights into educational curricula for medical professionals, and the omission of these competencies undermines India’s commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 10), which aim to reduce inequality.

It also emphasises the importance of addressing transgender-specific health issues as required by the TPA, 2019, including the creation of a health manual for sex reassignment surgeries.

The current curriculum’s focus on a binary understanding of gender neglects the health needs of transgender individuals entirely, they added.

Activists have now urged Dr Kumar to ensure the reintroduction of mandatory disability competencies before the new MBBS session starts on October 14 and to incorporate case studies on disability, transgender, and queer persons into the longitudinal ethics curriculum.