MBBS graduates from abroad face a hard road to licence | India News

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NEW DELHI: It is unusual for medical graduates in India to be embarrassed around their relatives. But Kumar Gaurav, who completed his MBBS in March 2016, has not visited his Bihar hometown in two years. His relatives had once made fun of him because he couldn’t practice despite having a medical degree. And that had stabbed him right in his heart.

Gaurav went to a medical college in Nepal, but graduates from that country can’t practice in India unless they clear the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE), a screening test conducted by the Medical Council of India twice a year. This applies to graduates from institutions in other countries as well, such as China, Ukraine, Russia, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Fresh graduates return to India and join the ranks of those who have been trying to pass the test. It’s a tough life.

Chhattarpal Vasisth, who did his MBBS from Ukraine, is now enrolled in a coaching institute in South Delhi to crack the screening test. The 26-year-old comes from a small village in Haryana’s Bhiwani, and the first to be a doctor from there. “I could not get admission in government medical colleges. Private colleges charged over Rs 50 lakh. In Ukraine, it cost me less than Rs 20 lakh, including hostel fees,” he says.

Like Gaurav and Vasisth, more than 5,000 young men and women opt for medical degrees abroad every year because of low cost and ease of admission, among other reasons. China is the most popular destination, followed by Russia, Ukraine, Nepal, Kazakhstan and Bangladesh. Some even go to Pakistan.


The life that follows their return to India is different from what most anticipate. They also have to deal with the realisation that, hierarchically, they are considered less meritorious than home-grown medical graduates.


Gautam Nagar, a residential area near AIIMS in Delhi, is known for the large number of medical graduates and aspiring students who live there. Just behind AIIMS are the winding lanes of Gurjar Dairy, an unauthorised colony where hundreds of medical graduates from abroad live in dingy accommodations on a shoestring budget, while enrolled in coaching classes and dreaming of cracking FMGE.


“When I went to study in Ukraine, I assumed I would be more sought-after here on my return. Life was tough there. I lived on a tight budget and worked at restaurants,” says Dr Saurav Awasthi, an MBBS now employed at a government hospital in Delhi.

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