The National Medical Commission (NMC) on 13th October 2021 issued an advisory to all medical universities, colleges and institutions to not teach unscientific information about the LGBTQIA+ community which are currently present in various textbooks of medical education, mainly in Forensic Medicine & Toxicology and Psychiatry.
The advisory refers to the Madras High Court direction on 31 August 2021 issued by justice N Anand Venkatesh. The directions note that the medical courses in India reaffirms queerphobia and discriminates against LGBTQIA+ persons, and called for necessary changes to the curriculum.
The NMC advisory also instructed all the authors of the medical text books to amend the information about virginity, LGBTQIA+ persons in accordance to the available scientific information. This move by the NMC was welcomed by the queer community and allies.
