NMC withdraws new medical curriculum guidelines after public outcry

The National Medical Commission on Thursday announced that its new Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) guidelines, 2024 stand withdrawn and cancelled. This cancellation of the new medical curriculum comes after experts and rights activists criticised the reinstatement of several controversial topics in the forensic medicine and toxicology curriculum for undergraduate medical students. 

These topics include references to ‘sodomy’ and ‘lesbianism’ as unnatural sexual offences. The curriculum had also brought back contentious topics such as virginity tests, importance of hymen, definition of virginity and defloration, which had been done away with after directions by the Madras High Court in 2022.

“The  CBME guidelines will be revised and updated in due course”, the medical education body said in a media release.