For the past month, one would see the striking junior doctors on the road near the SSG hospital. Passers by would be mute spectators to the unfolding drama that the junior doctors put up. The issue was stipend and a corresponding raise. On Sunday, patients heaved a sigh of relief with the triumphant junior doctors returning with a 56% raise in their stipends.
Let us for a moment pause and examine the notions behind paying stipends to students. Most professions such as Law, Accountancy and Architecture require students to work as apprentices before they actually start their practice. The stipend encourages students to continue their studies and is a notional acknowledgment of their efforts towards the professions. Stipends are usually never sufficient for a person to subsist on – at least in India. Most professionals in India such as Architects, Chartered Accountants, Lawyers accept trainees and enable them to learn the ropes of the profession under their watchful eyes. The stipend is often negligible and very often not paid at all. Trainees work long, strenuous hours under these professionals as apprentices learning the tricks of the trade and about the profession. Junior Doctors work towards their post graduation degree and in such a situation one fails to see the logic behind the strike – that too for a raise in stipends.
Prasad Telang, a third year architecture student from Vallabhvidyanagar, commutes daily from his home in Nadiad to an architect’s office in Baroda for his training. “The training period enables us to see the professional world from very close quarters. Many things are interpreted very differently in the profession than in academics. It is in our interest to learn these aspects so that they would be useful to us when we start our practice.” Talking about the recent strike of the junior Doctors, he says, “I understand that the word stipend means a voluntary payment by the professionals to the trainees which is just a token amount. At the moment, I get an amount which is less than four figures! I don’t grudge the doctors their raise but are they going to save more lives because of their raise?” Students of law and accountancy also go through similar plights in their respective careers.
It is often argued, and rightly too, that Medicine is the noblest profession in the world. Doctors are lifesavers but it takes all sorts of professionals to make the world go around.
It was a deep feeling of anguish when these noble professionals brandished the weapon of a strike for the sake of a raise in stipends! It was sheer blackmail and violence of sorts. After fifty years of independence, we have used a non violent method for an extremely debatable issue. Imagine doctors’ shying away from their duties because they thought their stipend was not enough! But, the silver lining is very apparent. We are now very sure about the commitments of these professionals and little is left to the imagination as to their professional activities of the future.
Surely, we all agree that the compensation the doctors receive in turn for their superhuman efforts was measly. Nevertheless, there are two arguments that one could put forward as a professional. One, there are other professionals who receive even less and secondly, the strike was not the means to the end.
Published in the Baroda Times, October 13, 1998
Let us for a moment pause and examine the notions behind paying stipends to students. Most professions such as Law, Accountancy and Architecture require students to work as apprentices before they actually start their practice. The stipend encourages students to continue their studies and is a notional acknowledgment of their efforts towards the professions. Stipends are usually never sufficient for a person to subsist on – at least in India. Most professionals in India such as Architects, Chartered Accountants, Lawyers accept trainees and enable them to learn the ropes of the profession under their watchful eyes. The stipend is often negligible and very often not paid at all. Trainees work long, strenuous hours under these professionals as apprentices learning the tricks of the trade and about the profession. Junior Doctors work towards their post graduation degree and in such a situation one fails to see the logic behind the strike – that too for a raise in stipends.
Prasad Telang, a third year architecture student from Vallabhvidyanagar, commutes daily from his home in Nadiad to an architect’s office in Baroda for his training. “The training period enables us to see the professional world from very close quarters. Many things are interpreted very differently in the profession than in academics. It is in our interest to learn these aspects so that they would be useful to us when we start our practice.” Talking about the recent strike of the junior Doctors, he says, “I understand that the word stipend means a voluntary payment by the professionals to the trainees which is just a token amount. At the moment, I get an amount which is less than four figures! I don’t grudge the doctors their raise but are they going to save more lives because of their raise?” Students of law and accountancy also go through similar plights in their respective careers.
It is often argued, and rightly too, that Medicine is the noblest profession in the world. Doctors are lifesavers but it takes all sorts of professionals to make the world go around.
It was a deep feeling of anguish when these noble professionals brandished the weapon of a strike for the sake of a raise in stipends! It was sheer blackmail and violence of sorts. After fifty years of independence, we have used a non violent method for an extremely debatable issue. Imagine doctors’ shying away from their duties because they thought their stipend was not enough! But, the silver lining is very apparent. We are now very sure about the commitments of these professionals and little is left to the imagination as to their professional activities of the future.
Surely, we all agree that the compensation the doctors receive in turn for their superhuman efforts was measly. Nevertheless, there are two arguments that one could put forward as a professional. One, there are other professionals who receive even less and secondly, the strike was not the means to the end.
Published in the Baroda Times, October 13, 1998
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