The National Medical Commission (NMC) has updated its curriculum to reclassify lesbianism as a 'sexual offense.' This change marks a reversal of a 2022 decision by the Madras High Court, which had led to the removal of such classifications from the forensic medical curriculum.
The revised curriculum now includes lesbianism and sodomy under 'unnatural sexual offenses.' It will also focus on the importance of the hymen, definitions of virginity, and the concept of defloration, along with their medico-legal implications.
Key changes in the updated curriculum involve:
Detailed descriptions of male and female genitalia, the hymen and its types, and their medico-legal significance.
Reintroduction of topics such as adultery, sodomy, incest, and other so-called unnatural sexual offenses, including the preparation of related reports and evidence handling.
The new curriculum also merges sexual perversions with criminal offenses, listing various acts such as fetishism, voyeurism, and necrophilia, and eliminates distinctions between consensual queer relationships and criminal acts.
In Addition, the psychiatry module has been revised to remove distinctions between gender identity and sexual orientation, and no longer includes teaching on gender identity disorders. The curriculum will also cover recent legislative updates, including provisions from the Bharatiya Nagarika Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), focusing on legal frameworks for rape, injury, and child protection.
In 2022, the NMC had previously updated the curriculum to better accommodate LGBTQ+ perspectives by removing references to sodomy and lesbianism as unnatural offenses. It had also emphasized the unscientific nature of the two-finger virginity test. Hoqwever, the NMC has yet to provide an explanation for the recent reversal of these changes.
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