New Delhi, 28th February 2023: The National Medical Commission’s (NMC) Right to Information (RTI) request raised concerns about the mental health of Indian medical students.
According to a report by Career360, an RTI response obtained by social and political activist Vivek Pandey reveals that 64 MBBS students and 55 postgraduate students committed suicide in the previous five years.
Between those two years, 1,166 students—of whom 160 are MBBS students and 956 were enrolled in postgraduate programs—left medical colleges.
Up to July 2022, the NMC did not give any information on the number of students who had experienced ragging at medical institutions.
A policy establishing the formation of a ragging committee to handle anti-ragging complaints from other medical colleges was implemented by NMC in September 2022. The members were required to review the complaints each month and launch an impartial investigation.
The NMC has also requested that colleges create policies for mental health, including requirements for doctors to get enough sleep, weekly off, counseling, etc.