The Latest

A Look At Why Junior Doctors Are Protesting In New Delhi & What Are Their Demands

byDisha Banerjee
28th December 2021
2 minute read

At a time when the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus is spreading and demands for our healthcare facilities to be solid, innumerable young doctors are protesting in front of the Union Health Ministry’s office in New Delhi for 11 days now. Visuals of the protest are being circulated online.

Now, why are they protesting? After completing their MBBS, candidates have to appear for NEET-PG for post-graduate courses and specialization in particular fields like surgery or medicine. This test is usually conducted in January, but because of the pandemic, it was pushed to September this year.

The students who pass the NEET-PG examination join as junior residents in hospitals for 3 years. They look after patients and work on other medical assignments. What happens is, the workload gets equally distributed amongst the doctors in medical institutions.

Representational image

Now, academic counselling is usually held in March every year. But because of the ongoing pandemic, it was announced that it would get postponed to November. However, they haven’t taken place yet. According to NDTV, with the delay in counselling, 50,000 doctors are yet to join the workforce – increasing the work pressure on current doctors and the woes of patients.

The counselling couldn’t begin as there is a “clutch of cases pending in the Supreme Court regarding the newly introduced quota for the economically weaker sections”, reports IE.

According to Economic Times, a protest march was held near Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital on Monday. The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) alleged “police brutality” and claimed that doctors were “brutally thrashed, dragged and detained” by the cops. Visuals of it have gone viral online too.

As a result, AIIMS and the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) have decided to join the protest. FAIMA has also asked the resident doctors’ association to withdraw from all work, all work, including emergency services,  after cases of assault against doctors came to light, reported The Indian Express.

Doctors from AIIMS have stated that they would withdraw from all non-emergency work on Tuesday if no concrete steps are taken.

“It’s high time for the government to release a report of what has been done till date, and what are the government’s plans moving forward for expediting NEET-PG counselling,” wrote AIIMS in a letter to the Union health minister.

Here’s a look at a couple of visuals from the protest.

What are your views on this issue? Tell us.

📣 Storypick is now on Telegram! Click here to join our channel (@storypick) and never miss another great story.