Patients get startled at first but then they accept me': 3-foot-tall MBBS doctor Ganesh Baraiya

 As a medical aspirant, Dr Ganesh Baraiya was initially disqualified from the Medical Council of India from studying MBBS owing to his short height.

"Whenever patients see me they get a bit startled at first," said 3-foot-tall Dr Ganesh Baraiya from Gujarat. "But then they accept me and I also forgive them for their initial behaviour."

The 23-year-old, who is interning with Sir-T hospital in Bhavnagar, had to move to the Supreme Court to fight for his MBBS seat. As a medical aspirant, Dr Baraiya was initially disqualified from the Medical Council of India from studying MBBS owing to his short height.

Not one to give up easily, he took the help of his school principal, approached the district collector, the state education minister, and then knocked on the doors of the Gujarat High Court. Baraiya lost the case at the Gujarat High Court but moved the the top court, and won the case in 2018. He was finally admitted into the MBBS course in 2019 and has just completed the degree.

"After I cleared Class 12 and cleared the NEET exam to enroll into MBBS and filled up the form, the Medical Council of India committee rejected me for my height," Dr Baraiya told news agency ANI. "They said that I would not be able to handle emergency cases because of my short height. Then, I spoke to my principal of Nilkanth Vidyapeeth Dr Dalpath Bhai Katariya, and Revasish Servaiya all about this, and asked them what we can do about it."

He, along with two other differently-abled candidates, were told me to meet the Bhavnagar collector and the Gujarat education minister following which they decided to take the case to the Gujarat High Court. "We lost the case in the High Court but then we decided to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court," Dr Baraiya said.

Speaking about how his MBBS journey finally started, he said, "In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that I can get admission in the MBBS course. Since the 2018 admission to the MBBS course had been completed by then, the Supreme Court said that I would get admission to the 2019 MBBS course. I got admission to the Government Medical College at Bhavnagar and my MBBS journey started."

On his everyday challenges owing to his height, Dr Baraiya said that though patients judge him for his height initially, they get comfortable over time and accept him as their doctor. "They behave with me cordially and with positivity. They become happy as well," he said.

(With inputs from ANI)

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