Madhya Pradesh would become the first state in India to teach MBBS in Hindi in the entire country.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to release three textbooks on medical education written in Hindi at a high profile event at Bhopal’s massive Lal Parade Grounds today. To be introduced for teaching MBBS First Year students in Madhya Pradesh in the forthcoming academic session, the three textbooks are on anatomy, medical biochemistry and medical physiology.
With this project, Madhya Pradesh would become the first state in India to teach MBBS in Hindi in the entire country. The brainchild of the state’s Medical Education Minister, Vishwas Kailash Sarang, the initiative aims at providing greater access and assistance to talented students who have studied in the Hindi medium during school prior to entering medical colleges. The project will begin at the Gandhi medical college in Bhopal before being extended to all 13 government medical colleges in the state.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had advocated teaching MBBS students in their mother tongue at medical colleges. Has the State government done enough groundwork before embarking on this path breaking initiative? Vishwas Sarang established a Task Force to prepare a work plan for imparting medical education in Hindi in the early months of 2022. In addition, two committees; one each on “Determination of Subjects” (Vishay Nirdharan Samiti) and “Subjects Verification Committee” (Vishay Satyapan Samiti) were constituted. Suggestions were invited from medical students and teachers and incorporated in creation of the syllabus. Authors and Publishers for MBBS books were listed after issuing of “Expressions of Interest (EOI)”. Professors were then engaged to ready the Hindi versions of textbooks and a “war-room” kind of “Hindi Chikitsa Prakosth or Cell” was also established for the purpose. Meanwhile, a “Implementation and Monitoring” Committee is being established in every institution with a view to create a positive attitude and atmosphere among students, teachers and society towards imparting medical education in Hindi in the state.
What are the challenges in implementation of such an idea? Skeptics believe that translating medical terminologies in Hindi, is a tough call. However, international experience of Germy, Russia, France and China suggest that this is doable. Besides, a deeper probe into India’s own ancient medical literature may provide solutions to this problem. For instance, Charak Samhita, a still surviving Ayurvedic text from the 1st B.C consists of 8 books and 120 chapters on human anatomy, symptoms, diseases and therapies. Albeit in Sanskrit, a rigorous analysis and translation of the aforesaid text may yield corresponding Hindi terminologies related to human anatomy and other areas.
Would it help in improving the doctor-patient relationship and health care in the state? A closer look at how the Western or modern system of Medicine (also called allopathy) works suggests that teaching medical students in Hindi may do so in the state. Whenever a patient arrives at a hospital, the doctor first asks him or her to describe the symptoms. Subsequently, the doctor conducts a general and detailed physical examination of the patient carefully and after this, most likely, the doctor comes to a conclusion about the diagnosis of the disease. If the doctor wishes to confirm his findings, he may then order some laboratory and special investigations. Thus, in the entire aforesaid process, the ‘description of symptoms by the patient’ (most likely in the local or regional language) is a critical factor in the diagnosis of the disease. A “thought experiment” (device of imagination used in both natural and social sciences research) would make the picture clearer. Suppose a patient were to arrive at the JP district hospital (popularly called 1250 hospital) of Bhopal complaining of breathlessness. To elicit information from the patient, the doctor may ask questions along these lines: Is breathlessness a continuous complaint or does it arise after exertion? How much exertion brings breathlessness? What other symptoms does the patient get besides breathlessness? etc …Even in the urban and capital city of Bhopal the patient is most likely to respond in Hindi. Any doctor medically trained in Hindi language would develop a much better rapport with the patient and would be able to provide a better diagnosis and thereby better health care to patients in the state.
Could there be any bigger and broader political-cultural goals behind this idea of the Minister? Perhaps, yes. Today in 2022, 75 years after Independence, a ‘Naya Bharat’ is arising under the NAMO-Shah dispensation with a profound respect for India’s ancient culture and civilization. The dedication of the “Mahakal Lok” corridor by the PM to the nation in Ujjain is just another recent example in these efforts. Sarang’s efforts to impart medical education in Hindi synchronises very well with the idea of “Naya Bharat”. Besides, it is also in tune with RSS’s long held view and conviction of imparting education in Hindi and other regional languages.
After attempting this paradigm shift of replacing teaching MBBS students in English with Hindi, Vishwas Sarang should now reach out to other Medical Education departments in different states, build synergies with them and host a “round table” at Bhopal of Medical Education Ministers from all states of the country to explore, examine and evaluate ways and means to teach MBBS students in vernacular languages.