This article does not seek to catalogue every shortcoming of medical education, nor does it argue that medical training should be easy or emotionally undemanding. It examines how India’s medical training system has become structurally coercive, sustained by chronic understaffing, exploitative duty hours, tolerated ragging across levels, and an accountability framework designed to forget rather than correct. Medical training has long been romanticised as an exercise in endurance. S-11014/3/91-ME(D) on 5 June 1992 , which had capped resident doctors‘ duty hours at 12 hours per day and 48 hours per week. Until accountability becomes structural, visible, and enduring, India’s medical training system will remain a time bomb — one whose eventual explosion will not spare doctors or patients alike.

Source: The Hindu April 08, 2026 06:56 UTC