On September 15, the Supreme Court asked the National Medical Commission (NMC) to address the allegation that 70 per cent of medical colleges in India are not paying stipends to MBBS interns. The medical community, in turn, has commented that it was high time the matter was resolved.
A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, asked NMC to file a comprehensive report with details about the claim of petitioners and what measures have been taken to ensure payment of stipends as per the regulations. The plea was filed by five MBBS students from the Army College of Medical Sciences (ACMS), Delhi.
“Interns are the backbone of every medical college and they should rightfully be provided a stipend, whatever amount has been fixed by the government," said Dr Lakshya Mittal, National President of the United Doctors Front Association (UDFA). "They are working for the hospital, for which they should be treated as employees, and paid accordingly. Assigning them work without payment amounts to harassment," added Abhinav Jha, an intern at Baba Saheb Ambedkar Medical College, Delhi.
According to the medicos, mostly private and a few government hospitals are at fault in this regard. Dr Jha also opined that the working hours for interns should be fixed, and incentives should be given to them if they are made to work extra hours. "As of now, the working hours of resident doctors are fixed at 48 hours a week, it extends beyond 55 hours for interns," he informs, speaking about the situation at his college.
Besides this, Dr Aviral Mathur, President of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA), mentions that a few hospitals that pay the stipends, often do not pay their interns adequately, and the stipends are irregularly disbursed many a time, so much so that some interns do not receive their stipends even after completing the year-long internship. Sometimes, resident doctors are also not paid salaries on time. "These problems have been persisting for long. Even when I was an intern I remember coming across them," he said.
The medical community is also of the opinion that the interns' stipends should be uniform across all medical colleges in the country, with a fixed minimum amount. According to the medicos, private colleges pay very little stipend compared to government colleges, while states like Rajasthan and Gujarat pay very little stipend compared to other states.
As per Dr Mathur's knowledge, disparity existed even among institutions of the same level within one state. He explains using Delhi as an example: At Maulana Azad Medical College, the stipend is Rs 23,000 per month, whereas, it is approximately Rs 30,000 at All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Rs 28,000 at the University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS).
"I hope the court takes cognisance of the matter, and it is resolved soon," states Dr Mathur.
