India has decided to include a substantial component on disability rights and the dignity of disabled people in the under graduate medical curriculum. This curriculum was recently updated for the first time in 22 years. In April, The updated curriculum had skated over the issue. In the days that followed, primarily thanks to the efforts of disability rights activist, Satendra Singh – a disabled doctor himself – two government bodies had directed the Medical Council of India (MCI) to look into this omission.
The MCI has now complied. “This is great news as future Indian medical graduates will now look at disability from a human rights perspective and not just a disease perspective,” says Dr Singh. He now plans to push for the curriculum to have a separate elective that students can take on disability medicine. Singh contracted polio at nine months of age and has since had locomotor…
