By Avinash Prabhakar
New Delhi, Nov 27 (IANS): The Haryana government's bond policy has evoked all-round criticism from the MBBS students and hundreds of undergraduates medical students are protesting against this since last 26 days.
The policy mandates students to work for the state government for seven years on completion of their course.
Under the bond policy, the doctors "need to work for a specified period of time in a state-run hospital after their graduation and postgraduation course is completed. If doctors fail to do so, they will have to pay a penalty to the state or medical college".
In Haryana, the MBBS students studying in government institutions have to sign Rs 36.40 lakh tripartite bond at the time of admissions to ensure that they serve for the government for seven years. The students are protesting against the policy arguing that the bond amount is "huge and unjustified", and the seven year is a "long tenure".
Meanwhile, the health ministry is working to scrap the bond policy for doctors. The National Medical Commission has also said that since the bond policy was introduced, the scenario of medical education has changed in the country and therefore, it may be worth reviewing.
Talking to IANS, Founder of Federation of All India Medical Association Dr Manish Jangra said, "We are protesting against the policy as seven years is a long tenure and they are expecting doctors to be bonded labours for seven years... Out of total 1,200 vacancies for doctors in Haryana, 8,000 aspirants had applied. If govt thinks the crisis of doctor in the state, why not they select all those who had applied instead of such inhuman bond."
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has also joined the students' agitation on Saturday. The IMA national president Dr. Sahajanand Prasad Singh, along with Dr. Jayesh Lele, and IMA's Haryana president Dr. Punita Hasija and others joined the agitating students at PGIMS, Rohtak.
Dr. Singh assured the students that the whole medical fraternity around the nation supports the protest. The doctors of IMA will be beginning with a relay hunger strike across all the districts of the state until the demands of students are met.