What are the parameters for judging physicians’ abilities? The Supreme Court’s recent judgment, declaring that the National Medical Commission’s 2019 guideline requiring MBBS aspirants to have “both hands intact” “reeks of ableism”, provides an inspirational answer to this question. The court was hearing the case of a medical aspirant who suffers from 50% locomotor disability and 20% speech and language disability but has cleared the medical entrance exam successfully. The apex court made an important point by delinking medical abilities from disabilities by highlighting the expert report submitted to it which said that the aspirant could choose a non-surgical field and thrive with clinical accommodations and assistive technologies. The inclusion of people with disabilities in the healthcare fraternity is crucial because at the core of their exclusion — a discriminatory approach — is a medical model that has historically reinforced ableism by framing disability as a deficit or abnormality. The State apparatus reflects this outdated medical view of disability. For instance, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 mandates that those with less than 40% of a specified disability are not entitled to welfare benefits while those with 80% or more are considered too disabled to be entitled to equal rights. Besides being reductive, the decision of the percentage of disability rests on the independent opinion of medical boards whose members — they do not include PwDs — are as prone to harbouring ableist prejudices as the rest of society. PwDs as doctors might challenge such supercilious biases. Further, a study in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics has shown that patients are more comfortable with a healthcare provider with a disability because they feel less vulnerable.

The NMC guideline symbolises the ‘ableist’ notion that persons with typical abilities and faculties similar to what the majority may have are somehow superior to those who lack these. The path to progress could begin with reforming invidious laws that entrench the idea of PwDs being less than desirable: the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021 allows parents to have more than two children only if the first two are disabled; Maharashtra has legislation that financially compensates people for marrying PwDs as if in recompense. The Supreme Court’s criticism of ableism exposes the prejudice both in law and the life of the nation.