The National Medical Commission (NMC) has decided to teach students how virginity tests are unscientific, inappropriate, and discriminatory and how to appraise the court of the same if the court orders such a test in matrimonial dispute cases. The decision was taken by the expert panel constituted by Dr. Aruna Vanikar, president of UG Medical Education Board of NMC, on the orders of the Madras High Court. The expert panel was initially formed to address the issues about the LGBTQIA+ community in the MBBS curriculum.

“Virginity test has been ordered by the courts across the country in various matrimonial disputes and doctors conducted it even though there was no scientific basis. This is the first time in the history of medical education that medical undergraduate students will be taught to appraise courts about the unscientific basis of any test/signs if the court orders so. Henceforth, medical students across the country will be taught about the unscientific basis of virginity tests,” explained Dr. Khandekar, professor of Forensic Medicine, MGIMS, Sevagram, who was part of the expert panel. 

Dr. Khandekar added that “There is no scientific way by which one can know whether the girl is virgin or not, similar to a male, whose signs of virginity were never mentioned in any medical book till date”. Dr. Khandekar also clarified the reason for not removing the topic from the curriculum by stating that “from the academic perspective, this topic is very crucial”. However, he also added that the textbooks from the new academic year will have an additional disclaimer paragraph and reasons behind doing away with such unscientific practice.

(Source: https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai/mumbai-news/article/virginity-test-unscientific-discriminatory-says-national-medical-commission-23234583 )