For this, there needs to be a participatory stakeholder consultation towards the development of a queer-affirmative curriculum. The directive also needs to specify changes across several subjects and not just forensic medicine and psychiatry. Otherwise, such directives will merely create confusion and indifference, as created a few years ago by a similar notification on disability inclusion in the medical curriculum. Specific guidelines on how to make healthcare queer-affirmative are needed. The NMC must start by recognising the flaws in its own CBME curriculum and explicitly state the changes required. Further, the advisory committee set up by the NMC does not have any queer representation. Instead, by putting the onus on medical colleges and authors of textbooks, the NMC is simply passing the buck of accountability while absolving itself of any responsibility towards making curriculum queer-affirmative. Also, the competencies which will make a future Indian doctor respectful and empathetic in treating a queer patient are missing. Sodomy, buccal coitus, and lesbianism are called sexual offences even though the Supreme Court has read down Section 377. For example, being transgender, which is a normal variation, is called a disorder. At the same time, the CBME curriculum itself mentions queerphobic things that are to be taught to students. While the NMC advisory title mentions necessary changes in the competencies of its CBME curriculum, there are no specifications on what these changes are. The authors of medical textbooks have also been asked to amend the books to remove any harmful contents regarding virginity and the queer community. In its notification, the NMC has advised medical colleges to teach gender in a way that is not derogatory to the queer community. A week later, on September 7, the Kerala High Court passed an order asking for the removal of discriminatory and inhuman references to LGBTQIA+ people from MBBS textbooks. In September, Justice N Anand Venkatesh, referring to a report filed by Dr Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, a trans doctor, called out the rampant queerphobia in medical education. In June 2021, in response to a case filed by a queer couple, the Madras High Court laid down a set of guidelines and directed the NMC to ban queerphobic practices such as conversion therapy which aims to forcibly change the sexual orientation of a person.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 mandates governments to take measures for the “review of medical curriculum and research for doctors to address their specific health issues,” but no action has been taken since then. The NMC’s notification comes against the backdrop of several recent developments.
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