Unable to Get Doctor’s License, Three Brothers Turn Counselors to MBBS Aspirants » Today Latest Stories
A small fraction of Indians with foreign degrees get licensed to practice as doctors here. (Representative)
New Delhi:
Mrinal Jha (name changed) from Bihar’s Siwan went to China in 2012 to earn an MBBS degree. A year later, his sister chose Poland to study medicine, and two years later, their younger brother went to Georgia to pursue his dreams of becoming a doctor.
The three had plans to run a hospital together in their hometown, instead they are now running a counseling service for students who want to study MBBS abroad.
This was due to failure to crack the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE), the official test for obtaining a doctor’s license in India.
Every year, about 25,000 Indian students go abroad to study MBBS. However, only a fraction of them are able to obtain a driving license in India.
In 2019, only 25.79 percent of Indians cleared FMGE. This figure was 14.68 percent in 2020, 23.83 percent in 2021, the highest of 39 percent in 2022 and 10.6 percent in 2023.
While Mrinal and his siblings continued to sit for the bi-annual exams, they had a plan B. They set up a consultancy where the three siblings work with the foreign universities they have attended and help MBBS aspirants on the admissions process. familiarity with the environment they have acquired over the years of their residence.
“I don’t know when and if we will end the exam. It is true that the first thing that was important was to become a doctor but we have been working for many years and we cannot stay at home.
“Foreign medical graduates who don’t clear the exam choose different paths like hospital administrators or other degrees but we have created another path,” Mrinal told PTI on condition of anonymity because he signed a “non-disclosure agreement” with the National Board. of Examinations (NBE) when applying for FMGE.
The universities they work with pay them USD 500 to 700 for admission and the three brothers have received more than 1,000 admissions from various universities in China, Poland, Georgia and Uzbekistan in 2023 and received Rs 4 crore.
“We wouldn’t have been able to get that kind of money if we were doctors, instead of practicing in another village because we don’t have a license, we chose this way which is legal. in the past they also work with Ukrainian universities but the war closed this way,” said Mrinal.
More than 18,000 Indians, many of them medical students, were evacuated by the government after the conflict between Ukraine and Russia broke out in February 2022.
“Then we researched Uzbekistan which has become a hidden gem with the best universities. We advise students on their options, help them choose a university that fits their needs and budget, and help them with visa approval procedures. We also guide them. about accommodation and help them settle in a new country, ” he added.
The brothers don’t want to stop there. They are planning to expand their operations and open hostels for Indian students in these countries.
“The biggest problem that Indian students face is Indian food. It is not easily available or it is too expensive. There is a business opportunity here. We are planning to open hostels that are specially designed for Indian students who are having difficulty in providing Indian food. We have started with the first in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand and the response has been positive,” said Priya (name changed).
When asked if she would inform the MBBS aspirants about FMGE and its success so that they are mentally prepared for the future, Priya said, “We keep everything open with the students. We charge a small fee from the students to help them with visa etc. Our job is to inform (students) and guide them to the cheapest foreign coast.” According to Priya, the cheap tuition fees of foreign universities are a major attraction for candidates.
“We chose to study abroad because in India seats are very limited in government colleges and studying in a private university costs around Rs 80 lakh to 1 crore per student, while the three of us completed our MBBS for less than Rs 60 lakhs. Our father had to sell everything we had. to bear this cost and our dreams were shattered because in India foreign medical graduates are treated differently,” he said.
Medical graduates from countries like Russia, Ukraine, China, Philippines, Bangladesh and Nepal, among others, are allowed to practice in India only after clearing the FMGE. However, MBBS graduates from the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand are not required to take the exam.
There is no cap on the number of biannual FMGE tests.
Foreign universities also give high-profile titles to advisers such as “accepted admissions officer” or “dean for international students”.
“We have been given this but we haven’t decided yet because we are trying to get rid of FMGE,” Mrinal said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is compiled independently from the aggregate feed.)
