A Muslim doctor from Jammu and Kashmir has claimed that he had to give up a Doctorate of National Board (DrNB) seat at a private hospital in Coimbatore after being asked to shave his beard to study at the super speciality institute.
The doctor, who requested anonymity for security reasons, had been allotted a seat in the nephrology department at Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital during the second round of the ongoing NEET Super Speciality (SS) counselling. According to him, when he visited the institute to confirm his admission, he was asked to sign a policy document that banned beards and was warned that refusal to comply would lead to denial of enrollment, as reported by Careers360.
As the beard is an essential part of his faith and religious identity, the doctor chose not to join the hospital and is now looking to secure admission in the third round of counselling.
“I was told that the institute has a dress code in place, which includes prohibition on beard. I explained that I was ready to follow the dress code, and even hide my beard with a mask, but it wasn’t acceptable to them. The institute director said it’s a corporate organisation and that the policy has been instituted by the chairman, who had studied medicine in the United States (US),” he tells the website.
He said he had not encountered such a restriction during his MBBS, MD, or senior residency years at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar. He also noted that had the policy been disclosed during counselling, he would not have applied to the institute.
“I humbly state that keeping a beard is an integral part of my Islamic faith, and I cannot be expected to compromise on this in a secular country like India, which guarantees freedom of religion under the Article 25 of the Constitution of India. Moreover, medical training and practice should be based on competence, ethics and patient care – not personal appearance that doesn’t hinder hygiene or safety,” read his complaint.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
