Undergraduate interns in many private colleges across the country, especially Karnataka, have been hit hard as the monthly stipend due to them during the one-year internship, which is part of the MBBS course, is not being paid in many colleges.
Although the Medical Council of India (MCI) has a regulation that all resident doctors in government and private colleges shall be paid the monthly stipend, the apex regulatory body for medical education has refused to intervene in the issue as “monitoring payment is outside their purview and left to the State governments and respective universities of health sciences.”
While government authorities are aware that the interns are not being paid the stipend, they say that action can be initiated against colleges only if there are specific complaints. However, students are not coming forward to complain as they do not want to antagonise the college managements.
Last month, the issue was raised by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) with the MCI requesting necessary action.
MCI regulations
IMA national president K.K. Aggarwal wrote to the MCI on November 18 quoting the MCI regulations “that stipend shall be payable to residents in any medical college as part of minimal standards for registration and this shall be on a par with Central and government scale.”
“It is logical as per the principle of equity that the same should be applicable for internship stipend. Whatever stipend is applicable for Central/State-owned medical colleges, should also be applicable to State private medical colleges,” he said in the letter.
Requesting the MCI to look into the grievances of interns and take a favourable decision as there is a provision of payment to resident doctors, Dr. Agarwal pointed out that there is a directive of the Dental Council of India and a judgement of the Kerala High Court that allows stipend payment to interns in private medical colleges too.
MCI president Jayshree Mehta told The Hindu that monitoring payment of stipend is beyond their purview and left to the State governments and respective universities. “Although we have guidelines that colleges shall pay, it is not mandatory. MCI cannot monitor whether the colleges have paid and the respective State governments should look into it,” she said.
On IMA’s letter, she said the issue will be placed before the Executive Committee for reconsideration.
“On September 26, the MCI Executive Committee that looked into a complaint from Karnataka about non-payment of stipend during internship had not approved the Academic Committee’s recommendation on the issue that stipend should be paid. Now, the issue will be placed before the EC for reconsideration,” Dr. Mehta said.
Several representatives of private college managements that The Hindu spoke to admitted that they were not paying as “it was a burden on their resources.” “The MCI is not insisting that we should pay. If it is made mandatory, the management will take a call,” said Chandre Gowda, principal of Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences.
Another principal of a noted medical college in the city, who refused to be quoted, said if the stipulated ₹20,000 stipend a month is paid to all interns, it will mean returning almost the entire course fee that they had paid.
Balakrishna Shetty, Vice-Chancellor of Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, said students in his college were being paid the stipulated stipend now. “But we do not know what will happen from this year following the introduction of NEET,” he said.
