Karnataka becomes the Mecca for seekers of MBBS degree from far and near

One of the "achievements" of the Gundu Rao administration. if it can be called an achievement, is to turn Karnataka into an "international shopping centre" for medical seats.By indiscriminate sanctioning of medical colleges - the chief minister has promised each caste a right to start its own medical college - with permission to the managements to charge exorbitant capitation fees, often demanded in foreign exchange, Karnataka has become the Mecca for seekers of an MBBS degree from far and near, at the cost of Gundu Rao's own "sons-of-the-soil" theory and merit of the local candidates. The going rate for a seat in one of these mushrooming medical colleges is US $20,000 (Rs 160,000) for applicants residing abroad.The Union Government had made it clear that the system of collecting capitation fee was not conducive to the healthy growth of medical education. Union Health Minister B. Shankaranand and Minister of State for Health N.R. Laskar had written three letters to Gundu Rao and Karnataka Health Minister Abdul Samad to give up this practice. The system prevails only in Karnataka which boasts of 13 medical colleges, nine of them privately managed. Of these, at least six auction their seats to the highest bidder. The state Government itself, by an order in June last, permitted private medical colleges to charge a special fee of $ 20,000 or its equivalent amount, in respect of a specified number of seats. Encouraged by this millennium, 30 more parties have approached the Government for starting medical colleges. But for the prolonged agitation by the Karnataka Medical Students and Junior Doctors' Association, at least half of these applicants would have been in business by now.Opposed: Medical students and junior doctors in Karnataka have been agitating since December 8,1980 against the Government's policy of permitting capitation fee and sanctioning of new colleges on that basis. The Union health minister had assured the striking medical students that the Government would not recognise capitation fee-based medical colleges in Karnataka. The state Government, however, pre-empted such a move by promulgating an ordinance on February 25, empowering it to grant university affiliation directly to any college, with retrospective effect from January 1, 1979.Young doctors march in protest against the spurt in medical colleges: Opposed to commercialisationA committee appointed by the Bangalore University Syndicate with Dr J.S. Saxena, director of health and family services, as chairman, had come out against according affiliation to the three managements given permission to start new medical and dental colleges in Bangalore during 1980-81. They are the Islamic Mission of India's Islamiah Medical College, the Vokkaligara Sangha's Kempe Gowda Medical College and the Mahatma Gandhi Vidya Peeth's Dayanandasagar Medical College and Dental College. Saxena had stated that "as director of health services, I have nothing to do with the subject of medical education and capitation fees. But as an individual and as a medical man, I am against the principle of capitation fee colleges."History: Capitation fee medical colleges in Karnataka came about in a rather unusual manner. In the early "50s, a brilliant son of a leading medical practitioner, H. Bhasker Bhat. was denied a seat in the Madras Medical College for three consecutive years for the simple reason that he was a Brahmin and the son of a doctor. He applied for a teacher's post at the Manipal High School run by the late Dr Tonse Madhava Ananta Pai.Affected by Bhat's experience and wanting to see all opportunities open to people of all castes, Pai inserted an advertisement in several newspapers early in 1952 outlining his plan to start a medical college in Manipal and inviting applications for seats accompanied by a draft for Rs 3,000. The response was electric. Applications poured in by the hundreds with the money attached and the Kasturba Medical College (KMC) was opened in Manipal on June 30, 1953.Almost from its inception, the capitation fee remained a bone of contention between governments of the day and the college management. Nevertheless, sanction was accorded on the plea that the Government was unable to open an adequate number of medical colleges to meet the growing requirement of doctors in the country.Encouragement: A year after its opening, the then Union Health Minister Rajkumari Amrit Kaur threatened to close down the KMC on the ground that it had "sold its seats for the next several years". Critics of KMC continued to make themselves heard, both in Parliament and outside. Amidst all the vicissitudes, the institution flourished and the first batch of students took their final examinations of Karnataka University with 57 per cent coming out successfully, not a mean achievement for a new college. However, its alumni earned the dubious tag of "capitation doctors".Striking medicos: Up aganist a stone wallIn course of time, the Manipal experiment caught on with more and more private bodies wanting to start medical colleges until R. Gundu Rao turned it into a money-spinner. He even went to the extent of encouraging each community to set up its own college with scant regard for the rules and regulations laid down by the Indian Medical Council (IMC).The system of capitation fee, however profitable and advantageous it may be for the politicians in power, has only widened the gap between the rich and the poor. A chief minister who swears by the sons-of-the-soil theory looks the other way when students with money from outside Karnataka corner most of the available seats in the private medical colleges. For instance, out of 200 students admitted to the newly opened M.S. Ramiah College in Bangalore, only 10 per cent are from Karnataka.Commercialisation: The stand taken by the striking Karnataka Medical Students and Junior Doctors' Association has been vindicated by the management of K.MC, the genius behind the capitation fee system. It has decided to do away with it from the coming academic year. A spokesman for KMC said the decision was taken in deference to the demand of the agitating medicos. The college alumni and well-wishers of its founder, the late Dr Pai, had proposed to create a foundation to meet the administrative expenses of the college rather than rely on capitation fees.The medicos, who have been agitating for more than three months now, are not against the sanctioning of new medical colleges as such but are opposed to the commercialisation of medical education. Karnataka, which lags far behind neighbouring Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra in the matter of literacy or health care, has the largest number of medical colleges in the country. Most of them are ill-equipped with little or no hospital facility of their own. The less said about the teaching standards the better. While half-baked graduates in arts and sciences may not harm society, turning out a battalion of doctors with little or no practical experience would be nothing short of licensing murderers.The Karnataka Government is unable to absorb in its health services even one-fourth of the 1,200 graduates turned out every year by the existing medical colleges. There are already over 7,000 unemployed doctors in the state, according to an estimate of the IMC, Notwithstanding the warning by the IMC, there has been a proliferation of medical colleges in the state.Proposal: Gundu Rao sees behind the medicos agitation the hidden hands of the existing private medical colleges, determined to block new ones from coming up, so that they can continue to collect capitation fees without let or hindrance. However, this is not borne out by facts. KMC has resiled from the practice and the record of at least three other older private medical colleges is quite clean on this score.A Review Commission on Karnataka Universities headed by Dr K.N. Raj and with Dr Jagannath Reddy and Dr C.N. Rao as members, had come down heavily on medical education in the state. It pointed out how the Karnataka Government was subsidising hospitals with teaching staff for clinical instruction to students. "While medical education has been commercialised, the Government has been lending material support to those engaged in this process. We estimate that a student who pays these high capitation fees will in all be required to spend over Rs 3.5 lakh over a period of five-and-a-half years. If such students carry strong commerical attitudes into the medical profession, they can hardly be blamed. In reality, many of them do not remain in the country, but migrate elsewhere," the report said.The report further pointed out the widening gap between the standards prevailing in the universities in Karnataka and elsewhere in the country and said, "in the highly competitive environment that is developing within the country and outside, the students from Karnataka may find themselves severely handicapped unless the present trends are quickly arrested and reversed." The Government seems quite impervious to all criticism. Faced with the threat of Bangalore University Syndicate challenging in the High Court the state's decision to grant affiliation to the newly sanctioned medical colleges, by-passing the university, the Gundu Rao administration has come out with a proposal to establish a separate 'Health University' and bring under its jurisdiction all the medical colleges in the state. The striking medicos, many of whom had courted arrest and tasted jail life, are up against a stone wall.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 25, 2013 10:35 IST--- ENDS ---

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Karnataka becomes the Mecca for seekers of MBBS degree from far and near

One of the "achievements" of the Gundu Rao administration. if it can be called an achievement, is to turn Karnataka into an "international shopping centre" for medical seats.

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