‘Product of China’: India snubs its China-educated doctors even as Covid-19 runs rampant
- Thousands of Indian medical students who graduate in China are blocked from work on their return by the notorious Foreign Medical Graduate Exam
- Amid border tensions between the two countries, they face other prejudices too, being derogatorily referred to as ‘China ka maal’
Tough though the experience was, he was prepared for the challenge, having interned at an 8,000-bed facility in Henan province, China, where he completed a six-year medical degree at Zhengzhou University.
But fighting Covid-19 is not the only challenge Dr Mammode’s education in China has prepared him for. Since his contract expired in mid-August (he is waiting for it to be renewed), Dr Mammode has been informally coaching several other Indian medical students who graduated in China on how to pass one of India’s toughest licensing exams.
The Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) – which usually takes place in June but was delayed by Covid-19 to August 31 this year – is a mandatory test set by the Medical Council of India that most students who graduate abroad must pass to practise in India.
Last year, the last time the test was held, 15,500 students took the exam and just 4,242 passed. The same year, a government analysis found that from 2015 to 2018 less than 15 per cent of students passed. For those with a Chinese medical degree, the pass rate was even lower, at less than 12 per cent.