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Bill as a bitter pill
DEEPA KURUP
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Medicos object to compulsory rural service
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— Photos: K. Gopinathan
Agitated: Niraj Kumar Nirala, Vikranth, Sowmya, Shruthi, Ramabhadri and Savitha.
The ‘One year compulsory internship Bill’, which proposes to extend the medical course by a year and make it mandatory for students to serve in villages, has not gone down well with medical students across the country. Medical students in Bangalore took to the roads recently to protest the Bill, which they claim is “an attack on their rights”.
There are several issues that medicos put forth to justify their stance. The current course structure includes a three-month internship programme, where students work with rural hospitals.
While many of them argue that it is impractical since they have taken education loans and that a prolonged course means having to pay more interest, others say they do not think that they can handle Public Health Units on their own. Most students say that there are too few permanent doctors and they are often left in charge of the hospital.
Students point out that while the WHO stipulates that five per cent of the gross domestic product should be provided for health services, the Government doles out a meagre 0.9 per cent. They said that instead of looking at improving the system and sending trained doctors, it was trying to impose an unofficial ban on recruitment of permanent doctors.
Students’ organisations such as the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation and the Medical Students’ Action Committee have called for country-wide protests to fight the Bill. Given that the Government is providing subsidised medical education, one may argue that it is only justified in asking these students to do their bit for society.
However, here is what future doctors had to say, justifying their opposition to what they call a draconian piece of legislation:
Niraj Kumar Nirala (Kempe Gowda Institute of Medical Sciences): The Government does not realise that it is playing with our lives. We have to pay 12 per cent interest on the loans we have taken for our education. If the medical course is extended by a year, the interest keeps accumulating. How can we manage to repay the entire loan amount? They cannot force us to serve, we refuse to be made scapegoats.
Service and charity should come from the heart and not be enforced. Not only does that not make sense, it is also an infringement of our rights.
Vikranth S.P. (Kempe Gowda Institute of Medical Sciences): The Government is bluffing about welfare. Let us get the experience required to work in these PHUs and then we will go on our own accord. There are students who are from rural areas. However, it is not practical for all of us to go and work there without learning to be a good doctor properly.
The four-month internship that we have is a farce, as we have very little time to get adjusted. Before you know it, it is time to leave. The Government may be okay with making villagers our guinea pigs, but we are not.
Sowmya Lakshmanan (M.S. Ramaiah Medical College): Why appoint trainees in places where experienced practitioners are needed the most? We are not equipped to handle the work load there and are not familiar with working in those conditions. The stipend we are given is minimal and the Government just wants to get away with cheap labour.
It is neither fair to us nor to the patients. We do not see these patients as inferior or worthy of second-rate treatment. The Government may think so, but we do not feel comfortable with playing with the lives of villagers.
Shruthi H.S. (Bangalore Medical College): We are not averse to rural service, but they should keep in mind that it is not easy for women. We are not provided proper infrastructure, we will have problems with the places we stay…who will account for all of that? People who talk about rural service and the obligation to serve society are not looking at what it really involves.
As far as girl students are concerned, such situations may be difficult on their family life. Villagers can be quite ferocious at times, we need to be a lot more experienced to be able to deal with such situations.
Ramabhadri (M.S. Ramaiah Medical College): We have chosen to become doctors to save lives, not to kill our parents! Most of us have taken loans to study, and have worked very hard to get where we have. And as we approach the end of our course, the Government decides to spring a surprise on us. I do not know what kind of planning the committee is doing.
All their planning makes no sense to us because we have paid huge amounts and gone through several hardships to be able to afford this course. Whatever subsidies they talk about, the truth is that a medical course costs a lot and it also takes us a long time to pay back our loans. It is just not feasible for us.
Savitha S. (Bangalore Medical College): The key word is under-graduates. We are prepared to serve, but as under-graduates, we are not qualified to handle rural hospitals on our own. We have learnt modern medicine. However, in rural hospitals, doctors are forced to prescribe three or four medicines to cover all ailments. We are not used to functioning like that. This whole Bill is a pain for us. The Bill proposes that these internships be implemented from this year itself. This makes no sense. The least the Government can do is to inform students beforehand. It is completely unfair.
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Education Plus
Karnataka
Chennai
Coimbatore
Hyderabad
Madurai
Tiruchirapalli
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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