Stop quota in medical education, law

Admission to medical courses and law should be made purely on the basis of merit and bright students from backward castes should be given scholarships to pursue these courses, said Dr Anand Gokani, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. The government should stop reservation in key educational sectors like medicine and law, he told Express on the sidelines of the national conference of naturopaths at the Town Hall in Kochi on Saturday.

“Nowadays, a lot of private medical colleges come up across the country and money is the only criteria for selection to these institutions. Due to this, students who are not academically talented manage to get admission to these courses and they have brought down the standards of the profession. A person who invests `5 crore in medical education will not be compassionate and empathetic towards the poor patients,” he said.

Gokani said the government should intervene to streamline the medical profession. “Many politicians own medical colleges and these institutions admit students purely on the basis of donation. A person who spends crores on education will be eyeing good returns. Hospitals have become business houses and they put pressure on doctors to prescribe costly tests even for small ailments.

A doctor who does not prescribe and perform expensive surgeries will be shown the door. So, even doctors who give importance to ethics succumb to pressure,” he said.

Maintaining he was not against the reservation system, Gokani said: “The aim of reservation was to educate villagers and make them partners in rural development. But, doctors from rural areas started migrating to cities after completing education, making medical treatment inaccessible and expensive for villagers,” he said.

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