In the last five years, 55 PG medicos and 64 UG students died by suicide, while 1,006 PG and 160 UG students dropped out of medical colleges, according to an RTI reply received recently by social activist Dr Vivek Pandey from the National Medical Commission (NMC). Added to these grim statistics is the suicide of a first-year PG student in Telangana last week, whose family alleged ragging by her senior at their workplace as the reason.
The senior student has been arrested and a probe is ongoing. In his defence, the accused pointed out that he was trying to correct the victim's mistakes and such interactions were common between seniors and juniors in a workplace. Keeping these facts in view, EdexLive reached out to doctors and students to find out what the situation for medicos in India is like.
"In a hospital, the work environment is very stressful," says Dr Karthik Nagula, an advisory committee member of the Telangana Junior Doctors' Association (JUDA). He adds, "It is a matter of people's lives, so there is no chance of mistakes. As far as senior-junior interaction is concerned, it often becomes strained, because higher authorities pressurise the hospital superintendent, who pressurises the HOD, who in turn pressurises the senior PG residents, from whom the pressure shifts to the juniors."
"Some are tolerant and cope with the pressure well, but some are very sensitive and feel harassed," Dr Nagula says further. However, he stresses that the pressure is limited to the workplace only, and after duty hours, the seniors are very friendly with their juniors. Asked about ragging, he admits that in some colleges it is in practice, but especially among the MBBS students, who are ignorant about the anti-ragging laws in place.
The anti-ragging laws for medical colleges are set up by the NMC. According to Dr Aviral Mathur, President of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA), they are very strict and the anti-ragging cell works very strictly. He gives an example of a college in Delhi where all the students of a hostel were suspended based on a ragging complaint.
A first-year MBBS student from Telangana's Osmania Medical College (OMC), who wishes to remain anonymous agrees. "The laws in my college are extremely strict," she says, however, adding that despite the laws, "To an extent, ragging is present in the hostels."
Speaking about junior-senior interactions, the student states, "In the first year, interaction with the seniors remains quite strict, when they correct our mistakes. but it becomes relaxed and friendly by the second year. There is no reason for us to be uncomfortable around seniors."
Dr Vivek Pandey, on the other hand, points out that many times seniors indulge in ragging to show off their superiority and even professors sometimes take part in the practice. "To another RTI query, NMC replied that it doesn't have any data on registered ragging complaints till July 2022. This shows that students do not come out openly about such incidents," he said.
He elaborates that juniors are often threatened against making complaints, and even if a person is suspended, the harassment continues after he/she rejoins college after the period. "Sometimes students are indeed afraid of being in the limelight," says the student from OMC, but also reveals the other side of the picture. "The laws are so strict that if a complaint is lodged, depending on the level of ragging, a senior's career is at threat. The students don't want that, so they refrain from complaining," she tells.
Nevertheless, the experts agree that there is a need to bring down the stress levels for medicos. Speaking about Dr Pandey's RTI reply, Dr Mathur says, "The numbers are not surprising but they are sorry. We as an organisation have been receiving emails about such incidents over the years. We would be happy to see them brought down."
Elaborating on the reasons for these "sorry" figures, he adds, "The reasons are collective. A PG resident faces a lot of challenges, which include exams, work stress, pressure from the administration, peer pressure, monetary issues involving student loans, insufficient stipends, especially for those in the periphery and availability of job opportunities." However, as far as the work environment is concerned, he opines that it differs from hospital to hospital and a particular case could not be used for generalisation.
The experts also acknowledge that the infrastructure in the hospitals, with a lack of good food and living quarters, also contributes to the stress of doctors, along with an absence of a friendly work environment. "If the professors start being friendly with the PG students, 70 per cent of the stress will be reduced," Dr Nagula states.
Meanwhile, Dr Pandey advocates for a mediating committee which is approachable and can take students' issues to the authorities or the government. "The laws are in place but the outreach needs to increase so that students can openly speak about their problems," Dr Mathur adds.
