The decision of the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) to introduce a three-month diploma in hearing aid dispensing has invited strong protests from bachelors’ and masters degree holders in the field who complain that the RCI move smacks of a conspiracy to legitimize ‘unscrupulous operators’ in the field.
Like the Medical and Dental Councils of India, the RCI is the regulatory body for audiology courses.
Currently, the four-year Bachelor’s course in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology (BASLP) and the two-year masters course, MASLP, are the major courses sanctioned by it for producing audiologists.
One qualified audiologist is mandatory in every hospital, but apart from medical colleges, no other hospital in the government and private sector conforms to it.
They instead employ holders of diploma certificates run by various institutions in audiology-related courses at meager salaries.
The Indian Speech and Hearing Association has now filed a case before the Delhi High Court against this 'illegal' practice.
But the RCI, which has a duty to enforce rules, is instead making moves to torpedo justice in the case, say BASLP students at the National Institute of Speech and Hearing (NISH) at Thiruvananthapuram.