MCI agrees to allow colour blind students in medical colleges

AmitAnand Choudhary

New Delhi





Following recommendation from the Supreme Court-appointed committee of doctors to lift the bar on people with colour vision deficiency (CVD) from joining the medical stream, the Medical Council of India agreed on Monday to end its decades-old practice.

 

Accepting the recommendation of the committee, comprising experts from genetics, ophthalmology , psychiatry and medical education, the MCI told a bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilar that it would implement the recommendation and a formal decision would be taken in its academic general body meeting to be held in October.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh and lawyer Gaurav Sharma, appearing for the MCI, informed the bench that the mandatory screening for colour blindness had been done away with for NEET, the entrance examination for admission to medical courses.

MCI, the apex regulating body in the field of medical study and profession, had earlier contended that people with CVD would not be able to perform their duty as a doctor. They had said that a doctor would not be able to do fair diagnosis and prognosis of a disease as it depended upon colour detection. The committee, whose report was placed before the court, said CVD should not be an absolute bar in the medical profession as it was a common problem. It said there should not be any restriction either at the stage of admission, or at the stage of completion of study and registration as a medical practitioner.

In its 35-page report, the committee said India is perhaps the only country where the colour blind are denied admission in medical colleges as CVD is not considered as a criterion for rejection to study medicine in USA, UK and other western countries.