Omitted in 2022 following a Madras High Court directive, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has reintroduced controversial topics such as ‘sodomy and lesbianism’ as unnatural sexual offences in the forensic medicine and toxicology curriculum for undergraduate medical students.

It has also brought back topics such as the hymen and its type, and its medico-legal importance besides defining virginity and defloration, legitimacy and its medico-legal importance.

The updated curriculum also covers legal competencies related to new laws, such as the Bharatiya Nagarika Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), alongside existing laws like the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

It includes discussions on various sexual perversions, such as fetishism, voyeurism, and necrophilia, however, distinctions between consensual sex between queer individuals have been removed, a source said.

Notably, the revised curriculum omits the previous seven-hour training on disability. The NMC’s Competency-Based Medical Education Curriculum (CBME) Guidelines for 2024 emphasize a curriculum that integrates subject areas while aligning with global educational trends.

The goal is to create an “Indian Medical Graduate” (IMG) who is equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for effective primary care and global relevance, it said.

At the end of teaching-learning in forensic medicine and toxicology, the student should be able to understand the medico-legal framework of medical practice, codes of conduct, medical ethics, professional misconduct and medical negligence, conducting medico-legal examination and documentation of various medico-legal cases and understand latest Acts and laws related to medical professional including related court judgements, the NMC said in its document.

“It was time to have a relook at all aspects of the various components in the existing regulations and guidelines, and adapt them to the changing demography, socio-economic context, perceptions, values, advancements in medical education and expectations of stakeholders,” the NMC said in its Competency-Based Medical Education Curriculum (CBME) Guidelines, 2024.

“To achieve this, the following national and institutional goals for the learner of the Indian Medical Graduate training program are hereby prescribed.

 “The first contact physician needs to be skilful to perform duties of primary care physician and have requisite skills for promotive, preventative, rehabilitative, palliative care and referral services,” the document said.