There are few self-financing medical colleges in the State that provide the stipend fixed for doctors pursuing postgraduate (PG) courses.
The State had issued orders to provide Rs.43,000, Rs.44,000 and Rs.45,000 as monthly stipend for the first, second and third year respectively, but except a couple of colleges, most do not pay their PG students well, some of them paying as low as Rs.5000 to Rs.10,000.
Even the Academy of Medical Sciences, Pariyaram, a quasi-government institution that the government had proposed to take over, gives a stipend lower than that fixed by the State.
According to information collected by Dr. Jinesh P.S., who was a former State executive member of the Kerala State Post Graduate Students Association, and postgraduate students in various colleges, one of the medical colleges in the State pays Rs.5,000 as stipend to all PG students in all three years.
There are others which pay Rs.22,000 while the Pariyaram college is said to be paying Rs.32,000, Rs.33,000 and Rs.34,000 respectively for the three years of the PG course.
Tuition fee
A so-called “affidavit” on a plain paper submitted by a PG student in a private medical college states that though the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations had allotted spot admission in the said medical college, the PG student had agreed to receive a sum of Rs.10,000, foregoing the higher stipend, for all three years of the course.
This is because of the proposed tuition fee hike by the college authorities to meet the increased monthly stipend and other expenses.
House surgeons in all self-financing colleges in the State are treated even worse. While the one-year period is crucial to complete the MBBS course, the stipend is almost non-existing in private colleges. While the State had fixed a stipend of Rs.20,000 for house surgeons, most self-financing institutions pay only Rs.4,500 to Rs.5,000.
These issues are often discussed on social media, but they are yet to be taken up by the government. The issues have been ignored even when there have been instances of agitating PG students being threatened by the management.
