Why medical pluralism and apartheid?
I am a medical graduate in Ayurveda abbreviated as BAMS and a victim of Medical Pluralism and Apartheid in my own country. I went though an article recently: The Ayurveda Education in India: How Well are the Graduates Exposed to Basic Clinical Skills? by Kishor Patwardhan1,Sangeeta Gehlot1, Girish Singh2 and H.C.S.Rathore http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/nep113 and all old memories flashed back to my eyes.Today, i wish to share a very true story with you all.
I was selected for the curriculum after clearing regular CET/PMET exams necessary for admissions to such coveted courses and as any other student going for a professional course had dreams of a good career ahead with bright scopes of an overall growth. But within few days realized the facts in unison with alongwith all my batch mates that i had committed blunder in choosing my career as Ayurveda. But what could be done then?
In INDIA we have a mixed system of medical practice where the big brother MBBS has been always a step brother to the Indian system Of medicines openly crushing and suppressing any hopes of growth by the latter.
Though Government of India controls both system of medicines through MCI and CCIM and claims for equal and parallel approach, yet the recognition for MCI over CCIM has always overruled any growth criteria set for professionals graduating under shelter of CCIM.
Can anybody clarify that what is the mistake of a student who takes admissions in such courses is firstly kept devoid of the competitive professional curriculum and exposures and after then is let free to face humiliations from the so called well qualified MBBS doctors and modern care hospitals when one approaches to them for professional training and seek jobs to earn his livelihood.
I was always let down saying that i need not to get in detailed studies of modern sciences when so ever i desired to,i was mocked upon on my salary prepositions when so ever i approached a modern care hospital for a job when i myself knew that i could do better than my contemporary graduate. I could do nothing but to bear all such humiliations as there were no jobs for us around and these hospitals showed interest in us only because they could hire us in measly salaries for which a MBBS would had refused altogether. Sincerity and perseverance are basics to any learning and that was taught to me all these years of my life and i continued with them only as my principles.
My parents used to feel proud that they have made their son a doctor but felt sorry for making me choose a career where darkness never faded. Most of the ayurvedic graduates i found was earning through their own private practices and some of them were successfully doing the same which used to enthrall me but all of them were in their advanced ages. I used to think of our sustenance till then.
I and my close friend started exploring all kinds of limited options available to us where we could also stand professionally somewhere and not degrading our education ourselves. But we could not find any way out and at last he made a move abroad to get a higher degree after which so that no body could ask for his BAMS graduation and i moved ahead towards some carreer in health insurance as it was the only oppurtunity i got.
My friend earned himself a MPH degree from England to start for his career as a lecturer in similar subjects while i made myself stand successfully as a Regional Head in a reputed company in health insurance services, though in fact even here graduates of MCI is only seen as legible doctors under guidelines of IRDA.
It is sorry to see the same plight of all those fresh ayurvedic graduates with no extraordinary abilities or fortunes to secure a career for them in limited resources and options available to them.
I wish to question today that why it is really so? Why are people from such professional courses destined to explore their own fortunes with no help around and made to sit contended with what so ever salaries and professional recognition they are given in their own country? Why cant this medical pluralism and apartheid be stopped altogether? In a country where religious secularism is declared why cant medical secularism be promoted?
I dream to see one day when i may not be let to feel down to say that i am a BAMS among all those people of medical fraternity and own a secure future with equal opportunities to study further and earn livelihood as any other MBBS graduate. Please do not take away our right to live from us. We have not committed any blunder to study Ayurveda in our own country to see ourselves as doctors.
I was selected for the curriculum after clearing regular CET/PMET exams necessary for admissions to such coveted courses and as any other student going for a professional course had dreams of a good career ahead with bright scopes of an overall growth. But within few days realized the facts in unison with alongwith all my batch mates that i had committed blunder in choosing my career as Ayurveda. But what could be done then?
In INDIA we have a mixed system of medical practice where the big brother MBBS has been always a step brother to the Indian system Of medicines openly crushing and suppressing any hopes of growth by the latter.
Though Government of India controls both system of medicines through MCI and CCIM and claims for equal and parallel approach, yet the recognition for MCI over CCIM has always overruled any growth criteria set for professionals graduating under shelter of CCIM.
Can anybody clarify that what is the mistake of a student who takes admissions in such courses is firstly kept devoid of the competitive professional curriculum and exposures and after then is let free to face humiliations from the so called well qualified MBBS doctors and modern care hospitals when one approaches to them for professional training and seek jobs to earn his livelihood.
I was always let down saying that i need not to get in detailed studies of modern sciences when so ever i desired to,i was mocked upon on my salary prepositions when so ever i approached a modern care hospital for a job when i myself knew that i could do better than my contemporary graduate. I could do nothing but to bear all such humiliations as there were no jobs for us around and these hospitals showed interest in us only because they could hire us in measly salaries for which a MBBS would had refused altogether. Sincerity and perseverance are basics to any learning and that was taught to me all these years of my life and i continued with them only as my principles.
My parents used to feel proud that they have made their son a doctor but felt sorry for making me choose a career where darkness never faded. Most of the ayurvedic graduates i found was earning through their own private practices and some of them were successfully doing the same which used to enthrall me but all of them were in their advanced ages. I used to think of our sustenance till then.
I and my close friend started exploring all kinds of limited options available to us where we could also stand professionally somewhere and not degrading our education ourselves. But we could not find any way out and at last he made a move abroad to get a higher degree after which so that no body could ask for his BAMS graduation and i moved ahead towards some carreer in health insurance as it was the only oppurtunity i got.
My friend earned himself a MPH degree from England to start for his career as a lecturer in similar subjects while i made myself stand successfully as a Regional Head in a reputed company in health insurance services, though in fact even here graduates of MCI is only seen as legible doctors under guidelines of IRDA.
It is sorry to see the same plight of all those fresh ayurvedic graduates with no extraordinary abilities or fortunes to secure a career for them in limited resources and options available to them.
I wish to question today that why it is really so? Why are people from such professional courses destined to explore their own fortunes with no help around and made to sit contended with what so ever salaries and professional recognition they are given in their own country? Why cant this medical pluralism and apartheid be stopped altogether? In a country where religious secularism is declared why cant medical secularism be promoted?
I dream to see one day when i may not be let to feel down to say that i am a BAMS among all those people of medical fraternity and own a secure future with equal opportunities to study further and earn livelihood as any other MBBS graduate. Please do not take away our right to live from us. We have not committed any blunder to study Ayurveda in our own country to see ourselves as doctors.
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