Resident Doctors on Strike in Mumbai

The last few days the papers have been carrying all kinds of reports on the resident doctors in Mumbai who are on strike. Very few newspapers are on the side of these doctors. Most of them have criticised the doctors harshly.

Lets just look at a few points objectively.

As far as I know, Resident doctors are students who have cleared their MBBS exams and are preparing for their MD exams. In some cases you have students who have given their MD exams & are waiting for results.

Education & Pay :
Doctors are educated citizens in a civil society. They get a salary of Rs.8000/- per month.
Lift men in hospitals on goverment pay scales earn approximately 10,000/- per month. Call centre representatives earn an average of 15,000/- per month and in most cases they aren't even graduates. From the time of independence, the government has hiked its own pay umpteen number of times. That of resident doctors has only been hiked thrice in almost 60 years.
Do you think 8000/- per month is a reasonable salary to expect for someone who is well above average intelligence & has put in all the hard work to become a doctor ?
Most resident doctors in government hospitals are there on merit & because of a vocation & not because of donations. If they had become doctors through the donation route they would be serving their residency in fancier hospitals with better working conditions.
Until now their annual fees were 18,000/- per annum. They have recently been increased to 50,000/- per annum. Annual income 96000/- per annum. Resident doctors don't even fit into the lowest tax bracket. Which means they aren't even earning minimum wages.
Recommendation : Pay needs to be made commensurate with their education & the amount of work that they put in.


Read the Rest of My Article on My Other Blog