Madhya Pradesh govt spent 10 Crores on Hindi medium MBBS, books found using English terms, zero students appeared for exams in Hindi
On October 12, 2022, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and then CM Shivraj Chouhan introduced the Hindi medium MBBS course in Madhya Pradesh, marking it as a major step towards making medical education more inclusive for Hindi-speaking students. However, nearly three years later, the ambitious project seems to have failed to find any acceptance among the students.
Not a single MBBS student from the Hindi-medium MBBS course in the state has appeared for the exam in Hindi, according to a Dainik Bhaskar report. The government have spent Rs 10 crore on printing medical textbooks in Hindi. The initiative that was intended to benefit students from Hindi medium backgrounds has failed to make any significant impact.
Students from various medical colleges told Dainik Bhaskar that they prefer studying and writing exams in English. The reasons are largely tied to better career prospects and the standard practices within the medical profession.
A social media user asked whether the 10 crores would have been better utilised in improving college and hostel infrastructure.
Dr. Aruna Kumar, Dean of Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, stated that teaching methods have not significantly changed since the introduction of the Hindi curriculum. Although teachers are encouraged to use Hindi language to communicate during lectures, English remains the dominant language for reading and writing for medicos. From July 12, medical college admissions for the new academic year will begin.
What students faced?
The Bhaskar report quoted Ankit Pandey, from Sidhi district, who joined a government medical college in 2022 after completing Class 12 and NEET in Hindi. Initially apprehensive about studying in English, Ankit was relieved to find Hindi textbooks and teachers communicating in Hindi during lectures. However, he soon discovered that lecture slides and reference material were in English.
“When I started reading, I realised the Hindi textbooks were just transliteration, all the medical terms were still in English, simply written in Hindi script,” he says. Eventually, he shifted to English textbooks entirely and has written all his exams in English over the past three years.
In another case, Muskan Prajapati, a third-year student at Gandhi Medical College, explains that the Hindi and English textbooks are nearly similar. “They haven’t translated the medical terms. ‘Liver’ is still written as ‘liver,’ not ‘yakrit’; ‘limb’ is still ‘limb,’” she says. She adds that medical terminology is so embedded in English that they refer to Hindi books only when something in the English version isn’t clear. All notes and exams are in English, which they find more convenient.
The registrar of Madhya Pradesh Medical Science University confirmed that all government medical colleges in the state now offer MBBS in Hindi. When asked how many students had written their exams in Hindi over the last three years, he said, “Not a single one.” Despite the availability of Hindi textbooks and bilingual question papers, students prefer English.
He also noted that, until now, students weren’t even given an option to choose the exam language in application forms. English was the default language. Even when the Hindi curriculum was launched, there was no formal provision for language choice. While students were allowed to write in either Hindi or English, they consistently chose English.
Government incentive plan for choosing Hindi
To promote the use of Hindi, the Madhya Pradesh government has announced a 50% discount on examination fees for students opting to write exams in Hindi. The average MBBS exam fee in government colleges is ₹6,000. Additionally, those who rank high in graduation or post-graduation will receive cash rewards. Madhya Pradesh is the first state in India to offer such incentives to promote Hindi in medical education.
Challenges on Hindi language implication
On July 2, members of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language visited Gandhi Medical College to assess the challenges of implementing the Hindi MBBS curriculum. Committee convener and MP Ujjwal Singh Raman told Dainik Bhaskar that they were evaluating whether this model could be replicated in other states. “We found that students from Hindi medium backgrounds do use these books, but English-medium students show little interest. Only 10–15% of MBBS seats are filled by Hindi medium students,” he said.
When asked whether Hindi could be introduced at the postgraduate and research levels, he replied that the current focus is solely on the MBBS program. Introducing Hindi in PG and research will be a gradual process.
Despite the government’s push for Hindi in medical education, students continue to rely heavily on English for study and exams. The gap between the intent of inclusivity and the practical demands of the medical profession suggests that language reform in technical education requires more than just transliterated textbooks. More importantly, the intent behind such experiments with taxpayer money has to be based on actual demand and necessity of students, not mere righteous opinions of individuals or headline chasing.
Previous experiment to offer Engineering courses in Hindi has also failed
This isn’t an isolated case of the government attempting to push Hindi in professional education as a student friendly policy, and students rejecting it. Madhya Pradesh first introduced Hindi in engineering education. However, similar feedback has emerged, students showed little interest in pursuing engineering courses in Hindi.
At Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal, only a handful of students opted to study engineering in Hindi. MANIT Director Professor K.K. Shukla stated that students are generally not inclined toward engineering in Hindi.
In the 2022-23 academic session, 1,200 students were admitted to engineering courses at MANIT, of which just 150 chose the Hindi medium. However, many of them either dropped out or left the institute. After a year into the 4-year course, just 27 students were left in Hindi medium, a report by NavBharat Times found.
In the next session, only 89 students enrolled for the Hindi-medium courses in BTech Engineering and Diploma.
Are these policies rooted in practicality?
Even though political leaders claim that offering professional courses in Hindi will “help” students, the reality tells a different story. These appear more like appeasement experiments rather than initiatives aligned with the actual academic and career needs of students.
The core issue lies in the mismatch between policy and practicality. In fields like medicine and engineering, where global standards, research papers, terminologies, and career opportunities are overwhelmingly rooted in English, students naturally gravitate towards English-medium education, regardless of their background. As a result, these Hindi-medium initiatives tend to fall short of their goals, with students ultimately reverting to English for better understanding, competitiveness, and future prospects.
News