Doctor Mohammad Shaloo finished his MBBS last year and following completion of his junior residency, intended to pursue post-graduation specialisation in radio-diagnosis. To that end, he cleared his NEET and even finished counselling, but when the time came, he was handed a rejection letter, and his disability was cited as the reason.

The 27-year-old suffers from a 90 per cent disability, which according to the amendment to Graduate Medical Education, 1997 — notified on February 4 — disqualifies him as a medical student. This Medical Council of India amendment, that makes anyone with 80 per cent and more disability ineligible to pursue MBBS (and PG as well), will affect thousands like him. Shaloo is now planning to approach the Prime Minister for help.

"When I can complete an MBBS degree which includes clinical postings and working in all the 21 departments, how can I not study post-graduation? What hurts more is that I am fit enough to carry on with my normal routine life, but this rejection reminds me that I am not normal," said Shaloo, a native of Makrana district in Rajasthan.

After contracting polio as a three-year-old, he currently suffers from a condition called post-polio residual paralysis, which has left him on crutches. Meanwhile, several other doctors have also come out against this change and written to both Union Minister of Health, JP Nadda, and MCI Board of Governors, condemning the revised regulations.

"The decision is an insult to the pioneering work of Dr Mary Verghese, the wheelchair user, who established India's first PMR Department and Dr. Suresh Advani, a wheelchair user hemato-oncologist," said Dr Satendra Singh, Member, Ethics Committee, Delhi Medical Council.

ALTERNATE PLANS

Shaloo has resolved to approach PM Modi for help, but with bleak chances of reconsideration this year, he might start preparing for the IAS exams