Medical Education Special STUDENTS IN DISTRESS
MBBS INTERNS
CRY FOUL:
IT’S ALL WORK
AND NO PAY
by Atul Krishna
T
he month of June has been a
tumultuous one for MBBS aspir-
ants. The NEET result was fol-
lowed by a high-voltage doctors’ protest
condemning violence against them in
Kolkata. Then came the token protest
by resident doctors in Kerala’s govern-
ment colleges against low stipends. The
voices of the protesting MBBS interns
of private medical colleges across India
over a simmering issue got drowned in
all this commotion.
A thankless job
With the poor doctor-to-patient ratio
in the country, medical interns often
function as cheap labour for medical
colleges, sometimes forced to work
continuously for over 24 hours. Not
only are the working hours exhaustive,
the stipends paid across states are also
skewed. Assam and West Bengal offer
stipends in the range of Rs. 20,000 to
21,000 per month while in Uttrakhand,
it comes down to just Rs. 8,000.
Except for those interns in a few states
in north India where the doctor-patient
ratio is satisfactory, medical interns
in the rest of the country can barely
catch their breath. Those who wish to
pursue their postgraduation often have
to take a year off to prepare for their
entrance exams, since studying during
the internship is almost an unthinkable
task. The skewed doctor-patient ratio of
0.62 doctors to 1000 people according
to the National Health Profile 2018 and
the lack of resident doctors in some col-
leges add to the workload of the interns.
A prickly issue
Compared with their relatively well-
off peers in the government colleges,
private college students are paid a bare
Medical interns of private
colleges are often paid
way below than what is
mandated by the states
concerned...
minimum. Unlike government colleg-
es, private ones mostly do not follow
the rules as well and the payments are
often delayed by months. Private col-
leges often delay stipends citing lack of
funds, administrative lapses and other
excuses. “We used to get paid Rs. 5000
but even this was not paid on time. We
protested for a bit as the payments were
delayed for 3-4 months. But the college
said they lacked the funds to pay on timeand the protests gradually stopped as it
was pointless,” said a former student of
a medical college in Uttar Pradesh, who
did not want to be named.
Protesting against such practices is
unthinkable for the students as they are
usually met with draconian measures.
“If we protest the authorities will not
sign our logbooks, or they can put a
week of extra duty by giving petty rea-
sons. That only further wastes our time.