PMSF condemns blaming, shaming of Indian medical students stranded in Ukraine; demands their evacuation

Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum (PMSF) on Tuesday released a statement condemning the failure of the government of India in evacuating Indian medical students stranded in war-torn Ukraine and the way they were being blamed and shamed by certain sections sympathetic to the ruling regime.

“Ukraine and its bordering nations are in existential crisis fighting the battle for national identity itself. Hospitality and comfort are not on the menu in all out wars. They may or may not be doing their best to cater to Indian foreign medical graduates but Indian government needs to protect its citizens within or outside its borders,” it said.

“These Indian students are in the most desperate hour of their lives till now. By asking insensitive and inappropriate questions like why do they go to small foreign nations to become doctors instead of pursuing education here in their motherland India, government of India (GoI) is feigning ignorance from the rampant commercialization of medical education and health care here in India,” it added.

“GoI is shifting the blame for the current situation and responsibility for their safety onto these Indian foreign medical graduates itself. To the heart wrenching pleas of help and rescue, the response of the IT cells sympathetic to the government and intolerant to any criticism towards it, has been vitriolic and organized. They are targeting these FMGs for their relatively privileged lives, but scions of political and business families allied with the current regime, who are far from any definition of a working class hero, are always dutifully spared from their spiteful wrath,” it said.

“We urge the larger public to have empathy for these young adults escaping the horrors of war and put a stop to their online and offline ridicule and humiliation in our public discourse. These students are being demeaned by their own countrymen while facing the fear of being forsaken by their own government,” it said.

PMSF demanded that the stranded students be immediately evacuated from Ukraine.

Here is the full text of the statement:

Limited government MBBS seats and lack of affordable medical education in India forces thousands of MBBS aspirants to seek help from agencies that arrange their admission in medical colleges in eastern Europe, south east Asia and Oceania, many of which do not require students to clear entrance exams like NEETUG prior to admission.

These countries unlike India have relatively adequate number of medical universities most of them entirely public funded which select and train sufficient numbers of their own young nationals into medical graduates for little or no tuition fee, who after graduating take care of the entire population of their fellow citizens.

With additional capacity to train foreign students on a monetary basis they welcome FMGs. Money that parents of these MBBS aspirants raise painstakingly, in some cases by even selling ancestral farmland, flows into the local economy of these small cities of Eurasia, locals there have grown tolerant of the presence of students from India/Pakistan/Bangladesh.

The picture of paid medical education for Indians in Eastern Europe wasn't all rosy and free from discrimination even in peace time but this is war. We can’t expect a society at war, unsure of its fate and food supply, to take care of foreign nationals.

There are already reports of alleged police action by Ukrainian authorities on Indian students that are trying to cross the border into Romania.

Ukraine and its bordering nations are in existential crisis fighting the battle for national identity itself. Hospitality and comfort are not on the menu in all out wars. They may or may not be doing their best to cater to Indian foreign medical graduates but Indian government needs to protect its citizens within or outside its borders.

These Indian students are in the most desperate hour of their lives till now. By asking insensitive and inappropriate questions like why do they go to small foreign nations to become doctors instead of pursuing education here in their motherland India, government of India (GoI) is feigning ignorance from the rampant commercialization of medical education and health care here in India.

GoI is shifting the blame for the current situation and responsibility for their safety onto these Indian foreign medical graduates itself. To the heart wrenching pleas of help and rescue, the response of the IT cells sympathetic to the government and intolerant to any criticism towards it, has been vitriolic and organized.

They are targeting these FMGs for their relatively privileged lives, but scions of political and business families allied with the current regime, who are far from any definition of a working class hero, are always dutifully spared from their spiteful wrath.

When other nations were collaborating with Ukrainian authorities for timely evacuation of their citizens from a warzone, Indian government was busy selling public sector companies to the same select few business families who are financiers to their campaigns and patron sponsors of their cozy lifestyle via electoral bonds and other means.

Air India, it's dedicated crew and on ground employees together, was one such public owned asset which could have been used for evacuation of these medical students who now feel abandoned in Ukraine.

But unfortunately for these medical aspirants, it had been sold to private players already. PMSF condemns these insensitive questions by the Indian government that blame and shame the victims itself and the wholesale sale of vital and critical public and collective assets of the country to crony capitalist class.

We demand:

1. Immediate evacuation and safe return to home, for stranded Indian nationals from the warzone.

2. Co-ordination with Romanian border authority for their safe passage through their country.

3. Special provision by NMC to consider the transfer of these MBBS students to medical colleges in other countries, valid when it comes to their eligibility to apply for the entrance exam in India for foreign medical graduates i.e. NEET-FMG.

We urge the larger public to have empathy for these young adults escaping the horrors of war and put a stop to their online and offline ridicule and humiliation in our public discourse. These students are being demeaned by their own countrymen while facing the fear of being forsaken by their own government.

We fear this ordeal might have taken its psychological toll, we may be of little help to students still out there in the Eurasian cold, but to those who have returned to the warmth of Mother India, our helpline and resources at telehealers.in will be open from March 2, 2022.

These FMGs are still trainees and our response as a society to their emotional trauma may determine the kind of doctors and citizens they will become. Their privilege doesn't cancel their basic rights as Indian citizens, definitely not their right to dignity.

Many of them are walking to one or other borders Ukraine for safety. Only difference between migrant laborers during the lockdown and these students is that the latter are not barefoot. We failed and abandoned our own within our borders during the worst of the pandemic last 2 years, let’s not fail our fellow citizens again when they are stranded in a hostile foreign and frozen warzone far away from home.