COVID-19: Hailed as ‘Corona Warriors’, UP’s MBBS Interns Protest Against Low Stipend

Lucknow: While young doctors have been risking their lives on a daily basis at the front-lines of the fight against COVID-19, their basic demands remain unfulfilled.

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) interns in Uttar Pradesh have raised their voices against low stipends again. The MBBS students are interning with government colleges and have demanded for an increase in stipend from the Rs 250 per day that they get daily, saying that the money is lesser than what a skilled labourer makes in a day.

They mentioned that a doctor or a nurse treating cases of COVID-19 in times like these tend to work round the clock over the week, and that they deserve compensation for their hard work.

On April 27, the United Resident Doctors’ Association, a voluntary representative organisation of all resident doctors in India, wrote a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, seeking his intervention.

The association has said that it expects the authorities to take up the matter “on a priority basis." In its letter, signed by Neeraj Kumar Mishra, UP president of URDA, and seen by NewsClick, the organisation says that the doctors, especially the “interns, are contact points for all sorts of emergencies.”

Stipend for MBBS interns unchanged for a decade

The organisation claimed that the interns’ stipend was Rs 7,500 per month (Rs 250 per day) in government medical colleges and Rs 6,000 per month (Rs 200 per day) in private medical colleges. The amount has not been raised in UP for the last ten years despite several protests.

An intern, who is working at a government medical college on COVID-19 patients, told NewsClick: "We receive Rs 7,500 per month. It means our daily wage is Rs 250 which is even less than an unskilled worker. The stipend has not increased in a decade. Instead, every government has increased the fees for students by twice the amount or even more,” he said.

MBBS interns had staged protests against the government before the pandemic broke as well, demanding that the stipend should be doubled, but government did not pay any heed. Even the previous government led by Akhilesh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party had promised to increase their stipend but it did not happen.

Neeraj Kumar Mishra, president of the URDA’s Uttar Pradesh, told NewsClick that the stipend used to be Rs 1900 per month a decade ago. “After the interns from that period held several protests and hit the road against such a low stipend, the government increased it to Rs 7,500 from Rs 1,900. Since then, the amount has not increased despite several promises by the government,” he said, mentioning that many government hospitals pay only Rs 6000 per month, about Rs 200 per day.

Mishra said that they have been hailed as "corona warriors" when the pandemic was declared, but that the reality on the ground was dismal. “The government was never serious about health-related expenditure. The seriousness of the government on health can be gauged by the fact that our government spends one percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health. Developed countries, even if it is a small nation, spends between four to five percent of its GDP," he added.

The URDA president also claimed that he met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after he came to power and handed him a letter flagging the issue of stipend but the meeting happened four years ago and nothing has come of it.

"We are creating a buzz on social media so that the government listens to our concerns but we are very disappointed that not a single government representative has approached us. Only Priyanka Gandhi raised the issue so far," Mishra told NewsClick.

According to the URDA, there are nearly 48 private and government medical colleges across Uttar Pradesh and between 2,000 to 2,500 intern doctors offering their services in the medical colleges.

Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra backed their demands on Twitter.

"Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ji, this stipend is very low. In my understanding, in times of such a crisis it is your duty to increase the stipend of intern doctors," Gandhi said in her tweet.