Intern doctors in Pondy paid ₹5,000/month

Intern doctors in Pondy paid ₹5,000/month

Bosco.Dominique@timesgroup.com

Puducherry:31.05.2020

Intern doctors at the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Research Institute (IGMCRI) in Puducherry, who are in the forefront of screening people suspected with Covid-19 infection besides treating Covid-19 patients, draw a paltry stipend of ₹5,000 per month, while their counterparts in government medical college hospitals in rest of the country receive not less than ₹20,000 per month as stipend. Their stipend works out to ₹163 per day, which is far less than the minimum daily wage (₹256) of a worker under the MGREGA scheme.

The intern doctors said the government college, which has the highest fee structure among all government institutions in the country, has the lowest intern doctor stipend. The fees at the IGMCRI is close to Rs1 lakh per year. To rub salt to their wounds the government does not release the stipend regularly. "Sometimes it takes more than six months to get this rock bottom stipend. Even after paying the fees which were hiked more than 110% in the past two years, we are not getting equal pay compared to other state government medical colleges. These issues have been represented multiple times by our students' associations but it is bitter to say it has not been heard in the past," said a memorandum submitted by the intern doctors to the government.

They lamented that they risk not only their lives and also their family members' lives during the pandemic and continue to work day and night overcoming many physical and psychological difficulties, but the government has failed to initiate any concrete action to redress their genuine grievances.

IGMCRI dean and director (in-charge) Sivagnanam said the society which runs the college received representation from the students requesting stipend on par with their counterparts in other government colleges and has forwarded the representation to the secretary (health). “We are actively working on their representation,” Sivagnanam said.