Hindi Diwas - India Not Ready Yet For Medical Education In Hindi, Says Expert
Former IMA General Secretary Dr DR Rai said there is not enough study material available in Hindi
Published : September 14, 2025 at 2:31 PM IST
New Delhi: Despite there being uproar around initiating medical education in Hindi, the plan hasn’t taken off yet. Many experts believe that launching this initiative without adequate preparation would amount to rushing things. Others believe that the medical curriculum should be taught in English only, as the country lacks resources to start medical education in Hindi.
Taking this debate forward, former General Secretary of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Dr DR Rai pointed out that Hindi should be promoted, but it would be too early to start medical education in Hindi in India at this point.
Dr Rai underlined, “There is not enough study material available in Hindi for medical studies to even start thinking in terms of starting medical education in Hindi.”
He said that some medical colleges in the country started medical education in Hindi, but the students enrolling for the medium has been very less.
He added, “Firstly, arrangements have to be made for recruiting teachers who can teach the subjects in Hindi.”
Dr Rai pointed out that apart from the medical syllabus being available in Hindi, even the teachers are not there to teach in the medium. Hence, the most important requirement is for recruiting an adequate number of teachers who can teach in Hindi.
He further said, “Then the entire post-graduation studies in medicine, including the super speciality courses, are all in English. All the books are in English, and if the MBBS students are forcibly taught in English, they are bound to face problems while pursuing their post-graduation and super-speciality courses.”
He further elaborated that at all the medical conferences, the medium of communication continues to be English. Therefore, a student studying medicine in Hindi would be at a loss to understand the proceedings at such conferences.
He underlined that it needs to be understood that English is a universal language and the medical students pursue their education, whether in India or abroad, in this language.
Dr Rai explained that there is a rule in the field of medical education that every doctor should keep updating their knowledge through conferences by enrolling for the continuing medical education (CME) programmes. This simply translates into the fact that a student studying medicine in Hindi will face lots of obstacles while doing research.
He elaborated that there is a need for the development of infrastructure if medical education is to be imparted in Hindi.
Giving the example of medical colleges in the national capital, he said that none of them have introduced MBBS studies in Hindi yet because the books available in the medium are not up to the mark.
He said, “Steps can be taken towards this direction in the next ten years.”
When asked about medicine being taught in the native language in many countries, he explained that the imparting of medical education in those languages has been going on for a long time and there is ample study material available for teaching in their native language, which is not the case in India.
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