KATHMANDU: Medical education reform campaigner Prof. Dr. Govinda KC has announced that he will launch a new hunger strike from July 23 after accusing the government of failing to address his demands related to medical education and public healthcare.
In a statement issued from Darchula on Wednesday, Dr. KC alleged that the government has shown little interest in enforcing legal provisions requiring Nepal’s medical education and healthcare sectors to operate on a non-profit basis.
He said the National Medical Education Act, 2019, envisions transforming medical education into a fully non-profit sector by 2028, but claimed the government has made no meaningful effort to implement the law.
Dr. KC also criticized the government’s policy of reducing scholarship quotas while increasing paid seats at private medical, dental and nursing colleges, warning that the move would undermine the quality of medical education and eventually leave rural health facilities without enough doctors.
He argued that Nepal’s rural healthcare system currently depends largely on doctors and health workers who studied under government scholarship programs and said reducing such opportunities would disproportionately affect students from low-income families.
The medical reform activist also expressed dissatisfaction over the appointment process for the vice-chairperson of the Medical Education Commission and the government’s decision to convert Geta Medical College into Shahid Dasharath Chand Medical University, alleging that the appointments were influenced by vested interests and lacked transparency.
Dr. KC has put forward five key demands, including the cancellation of what he described as controversial appointments at the Medical Education Commission and Dasharath Chand Medical University, the withdrawal of decisions to cut scholarship quotas and increase paid seats in private colleges, implementation of the legal provision requiring non-profit medical education, expansion of infrastructure and public services in Sudurpashchim and other border regions, and impartial investigations into serious crimes and corruption cases.
He said the government had been given until Shrawan 5 to address the demands but had failed to respond, leaving him with no option but to resume his protest.
Dr. KC warned that the government would bear full responsibility for any consequences arising during the hunger strike.
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