Quota for disabled persons up from 3 to 5 percent in Post Graduate medical courses

NEW DELHI: The government has amended regulation for admission to PG medical courses, allowing percentage of seats to be filled up by persons with disabilities to be up from 3 to 5 per cent  as per the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

This will expand the scope of persons with disabilities getting benefit of reservation, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement.

“Now all 21 benchmark disabilities as per the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 can register for admission to medical courses,” said Union Health minister J P Nadda.

According to the amended provision, 21 kinds of disabilities that includes blindness, low-vision, leprosy cured persons, hearing impairment (deaf and hard of hearing), locomotor disability, dwarfism, intellectual disability, mental illness, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and chronic neurological conditions will be considered for admission through the quota.

The list will also include specific learning disabilities, multiple sclerosis, speech and language disability, thalassemia, hemophilia, sickle cell disease, multiple disabilities (including deafness and blindness), acid attack victim and Parkinson's disease.

The ministry said that the software used by director general of health services for central counseling has also been amended to allow registration of all such candidates.

“Registration/allotment of seats would be followed by a medical examination to ascertain the level of Disability before finally granting admission to candidates selected under the reserved quota,” said the statement.

There are about 27,000 PG seats in medical colleges across India.