MBBS curriculum changed to say 'virginity test unscientific'

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, July 7

For the first time in the history of medical education in India, MBBS students starting this year's session, will be taught that the two finger virginity test is unscientific and does not help establish the virginity of a woman.

The National Medical Commission (NMC) on Thursday approved changes to the MBBS curriculum which currently carries the description of signs of virginity (defined as virginity test) and the medico legal significance of this test.

The NMC has now decided to teach students how the virginity test including the two finger test of female genitalia is unscientific, inhumane and discriminatory.  

It has decided to teach students how to appraise courts about the unscientific nature of signs of virginity and its test in case the court orders the same in matrimonial disputes, as is rampant currently.

The NMC took the decision on the recommendations of an expert panel constituted by the Commission's undergraduate board president Aruna Vanikar, on the orders of Madras High Court recently, to address issues related to the LGBTQIA+ community in the MBBS curriculum.

The panel expanded its ambit to include the review of virginity tests in medical UG syllabus.

Panel member Indrajit Khandekar, Professor, Forensic Medicine at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram, Wardha, told The Tribune on Thursday that "Virginity tests have been ordered by courts across the country in various matrimonial disputes like nullity of marriage and impotence. On court orders to opine whether the girl is virgin or not, doctors routinely examine girls’ hymen for hymenal opening size or tears. The two finger test is rampant to assess vaginal laxity. The NMC has now decided to teach doctors about the unscientific nature of these tests so that tomorrow if courts order the same, the doctors can reason scientifically and cite the MBBS course curriculum to make their point. If we do not teach them that the virginity test is unscientific, they would continue to have to perform the same under pressure from the court," Khandekar said.

The expert said no MBBS book in India ever mentioned the ‘signs of virginity’ of a male and the mention of the virginity of a female was not only discriminatory but unscientific.

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