The National Medical Commission (NMC), India’s apex medical education regulator, announced on Friday, 1 April, that beginning with the current batch of MBBS students in the country, students will take the Maharshi Charak Shapath instead of the Hippocratic oath.
The new oath is named after Maharishi Charak, the Ayurvedic father who established a code of conduct for healers in ancient Indian medicine.
The Hippocratic oath, named after the Greek philosopher and healer Hippocrates, is taken by medical students during graduation ceremonies to represent their responsibility as doctors.
The new guidelines are a part of the regulatory authority’s revised competency-based curriculum for medical students. It says,
The development comes days after Dr Bharti Pravin Pawar, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, stated in the Rajya Sabha that the Hippocratic Oath would not be replaced with the Charak Shapath.
The revised guidelines also recommend a 10-day yoga refresher course, which will run from June 12 to June 21, International Yoga Day.
“Yoga module will be made available to all colleges… however colleges may adopt their own modules. Yoga unit may be inducted under PMR department or any other department of all colleges at their discretion,” as per the guidelines, reported Indian Express.
Students enrolling in PG medical colleges this year will also will also have to take the National Exit Test (NExT), a licentiate entrance examination that also serves as the MBBS final exam.