Rural service to be part of BDS internship: Mazumdar

Updated on: Saturday, November 05, 2011

Rendering service in rural areas for three months will be part of the one-year internship that undergraduates have to do for obtaining the Bachelor of Dental Sciences degree, said Dental Council of India (DCI) president Dibyendu Mazumdar.

Speaking at the 33rd national conference of the Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry here on Friday, Mr. Mazumdar said the rural people were not treated by dentists. “We give service only to 30 per cent of the urban population. About 70 per cent of the rural people are not properly treated,” he said.

The three-month rural service would have dual benefit, he said. While the rural people would get quality dental care, the graduates would be exposed to rural areas. The students would benefit with good clinical material, he said.

Dr. Mazumdar said the rural service concept had been highly appreciated by the Union Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad.

“He told me that the proposal will be accepted and passed. He is thinking why not introduce the same in MBBS. We are the pathfinders for rural service,” Dr. Mazumdar said.

He thanked the students and faculty for helping him reintroduce the four-year course and one-year internship system.

Faculty

Dr. Mazumdar said the Dental Council of India had been looking into complaints of faculty members being sacked after the courses they were teaching had been derecognised by the Council. It was difficult to address such complaints because permission of the council had not been taken while making the recruitment. “We are thinking of making the State Government or the university answerable in such a situation,” he said.

Dr. Mazumdar said efforts were on to make the working of DCI transparent. “There is corruption, I do not deny. There is macro-leakage in the DCI. If this is reduced to micro-leakage it will be a success story,” he said.

The former Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde and president of the Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry Naveet Grewal spoke.

Rural service to be part of BDS internship: Mazumdar

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