• Bhugwan Singh, Juhi Priyam Singh, Sumayyah Ebrahim, and Namasha Mariemuthoo Naidoo.
• Department of Surgery, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, 719 Umbilo Road, Durban 4001, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
• Natl Med J India. 2024 Jul 1; 37 (4): 219221219-221.

AbstractApartheid had a devastating impact on medical education in South Africa. Until the development of the University of Natal Medical School in 1951, there were minimal opportunities for blacks (collectively Africans, Indians and so-called coloureds) to undertake undergraduate and postgraduate medical training in South Africa. At the height of apartheid (1968-1977), whites who had constituted 17% of the population, accounted for up to 87% of all medical graduates. The African majority, constituting 70% of the population had less than 5% of all medical graduates in South Africa. The global isolation of South Africa from the late 1940s further impacted negatively on the medical training for blacks in South Africa. During apartheid, the Government of India provided full scholarships to the marginalized in South Africa to study medicine in India. This initiative, coming at a time when India was grappling with its post-colonial challenges, was a remarkable yet seldom appreciated gesture.

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