Hundreds of resident doctors staged a demonstration at Tipu Sultan Gardens near the office of Deputy Commissioner here on Monday demanding a hike in their stipend. Wearing a black armband, the medical students took out a precession from Raichur Institute of Medical Sciences.
They said that Delhi, Meghalaya, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarkhand, Odisha, Kerala, Jharkhand and other States pay better stipend to their resident doctors as compared to Karnataka.
They alleged that the government forced them to work more with less pay. “We work for 80-100 hours a week. We are not entitled to take even weekly off, let alone leave facilities. Our duty-hours sometimes get stretched for 36-48 hours continuously. Yet, we are paid less,” a postgraduate student said during the protest.
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Their demand was hiking the stipend from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000 for house surgeons, from Rs. 25,000 to 40,000 for postgraduates (MD, MS and Diploma) and from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 50,000 for super specialty (DM/M.ch) students a month.
“Now many of us are around 30 years old. Some are married and have families. Yet, we are forced to be dependent on our parents for our daily expenses. The stipend being paid to us is not at all sufficient to meet our family expenditure, academic and research expenses. The government must consider our hard work and long working hours and hike our stipend,” another student said.
A memorandum was submitted to the office of Deputy Commissioner.
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