‘Virginity & finger tests’ persist inmed textbooks despite NMC ban

Nagpur: Despite explicit directions from the National Medical Commission (NMC) to eliminate unscientific and discriminatory concepts of "virginity" from medical education, several forensic medicine textbooks in circulation continue to retain outdated descriptions that indirectly support the discredited "virginity test". Some of these textbooks have, surprisingly, been prescribed by health universities and premier institutions for second and third-year MBBS courses, as well as for MD programmes in forensic medicine.Historically, medical textbooks described so-called "signs of virginity", including the condition of the hymen, fourchette, vaginal canal, and the insertion of 1 or 2 fingers — popularly known as the "finger test" — to assess whether a woman was "accustomed to sexual intercourse". These practices were long criticised for lacking scientific validity and for violating a woman's dignity, privacy, and bodily autonomy.
Following a sustained challenge to these practices by medico-legal expert Dr Indrajit Khandekar, who is professor, forensic medicine department at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS) Sewagram since 2011, the issue gained national attention. In 2022, the NMC revised the undergraduate forensic medicine syllabus, explicitly stating that signs of virginity are unscientific, inhumane, and discriminatory. The revised curriculum also mandates that medical graduates be trained to inform courts about the lack of scientific basis of such tests, even if sought through judicial orders.Dr Khandekar was included as a member of the NMC expert committee that recommended these reforms. Based on the committee's advice, the NMC also issued advisories to textbook authors and publishers to remove unscientific content relating to virginity assessment.However, recent editions of several forensic medicine textbooks show only partial compliance and appear largely cosmetic rather than substantive, he said. While many now label the ‘finger test' as unscientific, they continue to describe findings such as ease of finger insertion, vaginal laxity, or the condition of the hymen as criteria for "virginity", "false virginity", or "defloration", thereby perpetuating the same myth in a modified form."In many textbooks, the revised NMC competencies are merely mentioned at the beginning of the chapter on virginity, while the body of the chapter continues to reproduce older traditional content on so-called signs of virginity almost verbatim," Dr Khandekar said."Merely stating that the finger test is unscientific while continuing to teach its conclusions is misleading and dangerous," he said, adding, "There is no anatomical or clinical method to determine a woman's sexual history."Experts point out that the World Health Organization (WHO) held that the signs of virginity have no scientific basis. Dr Khandekar now called for strict enforcement of NMC directives and comprehensive revision of medical textbooks to ensure ethical, evidence-based medical education.Need For Stricter EnforcementNMC revised syllabus in 2022, declaring 'virginity tests' unscientific, inhumane, and discriminatoryDespite NMC directives, several forensic medicine textbooks still retain concepts of 'virginity'These outdated texts are prescribed in MBBS and MD forensic medicine coursesMany textbooks show only cosmetic changes while continuing to describe false 'signs of virginity'Experts, citing WHO, urge strict enforcement and comprehensive textbook revisions