The protest launched in Nagpur was called ‘Save Merit, Save India’. Parents of students participated with doctors along with medical students.
There are very limited seats for post-graduation. And due to the reservation, the seats which are available for the open category students are only 4 per cent. The reservation will impact 50-60 per cent of the students.
Students alleged that due to the reservation of Economically Backward Class and Social and Economically Backward Class will leave only 4% seats for the open category.
In Mumbai, Medical students from Lokmanya Tilak Hospital and Medical College in Sion launched a protest against the reservation system in a bid to save their medical seats. This protest is against the imbalanced ratio of medical seats.
Dr Praneet Manekar, Post-Intern, Nagpur Government Medical College (GMC), said, “The protest was organised at a prominent location in Nagpur city. Several doctors and parents came forward to participate in this protest.”
Dr Manju Shahgiri, secretary IMA Nagpur, whose daughter will be appearing for the undergraduate NEET exam, who attended the protest in her capacity as a parent, said, “This reservation will affect the quality of medical education. It will hamper the future of students in the open category due to the shortage of seats.”
Doctors, medical students and parents came with posters and banners in their hand demanding justice for the open category students.
Medical students across Maharashtra who want to pursue post-graduation are joining the protest in large numbers. So far, protests have been held in Nagpur and Mumbai, and another protest rally will be held in Pune on Wednesday, April 10
The reality of the situation is the same in Pune. While speaking to My Medical Mantra a few students shared their concerns.
Dr Tanvi Modi, post intern student at BJ Medical College, Pune said. “In spite of being in the top 10% out of 1.5lakh people who’ve given this exam, it’s a real shame if we don’t get seats. So I’ve spent the last few weeks extremely worried, wondering if I should repeat a year or give the exams of other countries to get out of this system and mostly just blaming myself for not doing better in the NEET.”
Dr Modi added, “It’s a horrible feeling to see a reserved candidate at a rank of 30,000 or 40,000 get seats in brilliant colleges. While at 5600, I’m getting nothing in a government college.”
She further said, “There are 16 open seats for Paediatrics out of a total of 71. There are 3 open Psychiatry seats out of 14. I won’t even get Psychiatry, which is my second option, when I should have got it very easily at my rank. So this is definitely a murder or merit, and it’s a shameful situation for medical education in our state with 78% reservation.”
Dr Aarya Barve, post intern student from BJ Medical College, said, “Professions like medicine need to be based on merit. How are we ensuring quality healthcare and a healthy future for our country if our doctors are not getting selected according to their merit? The PG seat should be given to the doctor who truly deserves it.”