In order to allow greater access to education to the persecuted religious minority migrant groups from Bangladesh and Pakistan, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has decided to permit them to take admissions in medical, engineering, pharmacy and other professional courses under self-financing schemes. This means a persecuted religious migrant, mostly Hindus, from these countries can take admission in premier institutions like AIIMS, lady Hardinge Medical College, CMC Vellore among others.
The MEA already runs a self-financing scheme for foreign nationals of developing countries for admissions in MBBS/BDS/BE/B Pharmacy/
Diploma in Engineering and Pharmacy in institutions in India against seats allotted by Ministries of Human Resource Development and Health and Family Welfare. The same facility will now be extended from the current academic session 2017-18 to the persecuted religious minority migrant groups.
However, these students will be exempted from taking the Central Entrance Exam (NEET), All India PMT, or any other entrance examinations. “They will be selected on the basis of academic merit,” the MEA said in a statement on Wednesday.
Accordingly, for MBBS/BDS/ Pharmacy/Engineering courses, a student must have minimum 60 per cent marks in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Maths (for engineering) and at least 50 per cent marks in English in any qualifying examination equivalent to CBSE/ICSC 10+2 level. Eligible students need to apply to MEA by August 19, 2016, along with relevant documents.
The decision comes after Mashal, a Pakistani Hindu migrant girl living in Jaipur, was not allowed to take the All-India Pre-Medical test on the grounds that she is a foreign national and rules do not permit. Only NRIs and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) are allowed to take the exam.
Mashal, whose both parents are doctors, had scored 91 per cent in her CBSE Class XII examination this year. She and her family are in India on a long-term visa. Mashal had urged External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to intervene and she had assured her help. Mashal, who had moved from Hyderabad in Pakistan to Jaipur along with her parents, was later given a medical seat in a Karnataka college after Swaraj’s intervention.