Mumbai: Doctors protesting for their rights or over specific incidents is nothing new in India.
But have you heard of a ‘bheekh maango andolan’?
In a novel protest, resident doctors at Mumbai’s Dr R N Cooper Hospital have threatened to go begging over recurring delays in disbursal of their monthly stipends, as irregular payments are affecting their financial planning, loan repayments and daily expenses.
Mumbai’s resident doctors receive stipend of over Rs 90,000 from the medical colleges in lieu of the services rendered, Hindustan Times reported.
“We had to raise our voices and threaten a protest before the stipends were credited to us post-Diwali,” president of the Cooper unit of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) Mayur Choudhary said.
Last month’s stipends is not their only concern.
“When the entire hospital is run by the resident doctors, how is it that our stipends are always delayed. The only other people in our hospitals who do not get their payments on time are the contract housekeeping workers of the hospital, who have not been paid for over two months,” Choudhary asked.
All senior staffers and academic professors receive their salaries on time, on the first of every month, resident doctors claimed.
They were told that the stipends were delayed because the clerical staff had been diverted to duty for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work.
“If there is any administrative issue, then how come it tends to affect only us and not the other category of staffers. All other admin and teaching staff receive salaries on 1st of every month but the 225 odd resident docs who run the entire hospital, always receive it randomly anywhere between 10th or 15th of the month,” Choudhary said.
Getting the stipend on time every month was important as many of the doctors are from rural parts of the state and their families are dependent on the money for their sustenance.
Representatives of MARD have raised the issue with several officials, and plan to take it up with the municipal commissioner.
