Government forms committee to prepare plan to offer medical education in Odia

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha govt on Thursday formed a 22-member committee to come out with a plan to provide medical education in the Odia language. BJP has promised to provide technical education, including medical, in the Odia language.
“In view of the mandate to provide medical education in Odia language in the state, the committee will examine the matter, identify the essential course books for MBBS education required to be translated into Odia language and workout timelines and budget requirements for undertaking this task,” said an official order of the health and family welfare department.
The committee led by Manash Ranjan Sahoo, vice-chancellor of Odisha University of Health Sciences (OUHS), Bhubaneswar, has teachers from different medical colleges of the state including SCB medical college and hospital (MCH) and national institutes like AIIMS Bhubaneswar.
The committee has a member of Odia Bhasha Pratisthan, Bhubaneswar, and two administrators of OUHS other than the vice-chancellor.
“The committee will assess the volume of work to be taken up for the purpose and the timeline required for getting the work done. The committee will submit their proposal to the health and family welfare department within 15 days for taking further action in the matter,” said health secretary Shalini Pandit in the official order issued on Thursday.
Sahoo, chairman of the committee, said it would be a humongous task for the committee. “It is a step towards promoting and propagating Odia language to the next level. The students who are not comfortable with English can study medical education in the Odia language. We have chosen experts from different institutions who can work in this direction,” he added.
BJP in its election manifesto had promised to provide legal, medical and engineering courses in the Odia language. Earlier, the Centre had decided to offer engineering courses in regional languages including Odia. It had a similar plan for medical education too.
In Odisha, textbooks are being prepared for engineering courses. “In November 2022, President Droupadi Murmu had released engineering books for first-year undergraduate (UG) students. “We are now preparing textbooks for second year UG students. It will be ready by October this year,” said Subrat Kumar Prusty, an expert involved in the process.