There are no reserved seats in medical colleges for Zoroastrians who wish to become doctors in India today. This is particularly galling considering that students can now only be admitted to medical colleges based entirely on their performance at an all-or-nothing examination called NEET. This examination is tough to pass and requires special training in coaching classes over a span of at least two years.
Zoroastrians have endowed some of the country’s foremost hospitals and medical colleges such as the J. J. Hospital in Bombay and the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College in Poona. Seats in medical colleges are reserved for other minorities like Jains, Muslims, Christians, Gujaratis and even Sindhis, but not for Zoroastrians.
In these circumstances, gaining entrance to a medical college for children from the community may be a chimera for the vast majority of our youngsters. In future, finding a good Parsi doctor will be a contradiction in terms! Those entrusted with managing the community’s future should work together to address this glaring deficiency. Dr MALCOLM RUSTOM PRINTER
malcolmrprinter@gmail.com
The editors reply
When a few seats were kept aside in the past for Parsis in out-of-Bombay/Maharashtra colleges, there were no takers.
...