By IANS
New Delhi : Hundreds of medical students in the capital will go on a daylong strike Tuesday protesting the health ministry’s decision to make one-year rural service mandatory.
Around 1,000 students of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College, Maulana Azad Medical College and Lady Hardinge Medical College will observe the strike.
“How can you extend the already long five-and-half-year tenure of the course? With this one-year mandatory rural service and the post-graduation after that, the total medical education becomes of nearly 11 years,” said Anil Sharma, spokesman of the resident doctors’ association (RDA) of AIIMS.
“This extensive programme of 11 years will become the longest professional course. Besides, the students would be paid a paltry sum of Rs.8,000 as stipend – less than the amount paid to clerks,” Sharma told IANS, adding that RDA will support the students’ protest.
He said rural service was made obligatory for medical students in Maharashtra but the move failed.
“The new system failed in the state due to corruption. Senior medical officers (SMOs) used to take 10 percent of the salaries of the doctors doing the extended one-year rural service for allowing them to practise privately outside.”
Sharma said students in Maharashtra would also protest Tuesday, where as Tamil Nadu students were already doing so.
Defending his ministry’s plan, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss had told reporters a few days ago that the MBBS degree was not being extended by a year. The students were only being asked to do a year of rural service.
“This is not a new scheme, as compulsory rural service was in force in the country 30 years ago. Even now, this is in practice in states like Kerala and Maharashtra. This will be only a temporary scheme for a few years to bring down the infant and maternal mortality rates in rural areas,” Anbumani had said.