After hearing about health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s plan to make doctors sign bonds that will force them to come back to India after completing their education in the USA, this is what the health.india.com readers had to say -
The Government’s move is a welcome one according to Vijayan Nair. He added, “For years, many students study medicine and their education is paid for by the Indian taxpayer but they aren’t willing to serve the country on one pretext or the other. It needs to stop immediately. Facilities can be developed simultaneously. 5-year leave for going to abroad should be reduced to 2 years only. Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad’s move is good and it will help stop major brain drain.”
Replying to Nair’s comments, Raj said, “India has poor medical institutions and it will take at the least 20 years to improve the condition of the infrastructure, that too with a proactive government encouraging PPP. Why should any doctor work in a place where he does not have adequate facilities to protect himself from HIV/ MDR-TB? Why should IIT students be allowed to leave the country? What do you expect any doctor to learn in 2 years? The courses are designed keeping human limitations in mind.”
Another reader Om Singh supported the government’s move. He added that doctors educated in government institutions with the taxpayers’ money shouldn’t be allowed to have their own private practice.
Most other readers however vehemently opposed the idea.
According to B.A. Shiva Shankar it’s a shame the government would force doctors to sign such a bond. After going through a terrible ordeal to study and pass the exams if a young doctor joins a government service he earns around Rs 12,000 pm, a lot lower than a software engineer’s Rs 20,000. Add to that the fact that doctors have to work under terrible conditions and find it hard to get government postings. He feels Mr Azad needs to think about the facilities and conditions these doctors work under before forcing them to sign bonds. “We face such dire conditions because of the people at the helm of affairs, so let them bother about improving facilities at home, and giving doctors their dues so they don’t feel the need to leave their motherland”, he added.
Joe felt that the government has no right to decide where a person should or shouldn’t work. If they are bothered about the taxpayers’ money, they can ask the doctors to pay back the funds spent on their education.
Raj, a doctor, was particularly scathing about the quota system that he feels has corrupted the system enough. He feels this move is similar to earlier government policies that has led to these circumstances.
Baldev questions why only doctors should be singled out and whether engineers, IT professionals, etc. should also come under this rule. He feels the government should look to improve the infrastructure here so people don’t need to leave to look for work outside the country.
Dr Rekha Jagannath feels that such a forced plug won’t help. “We need generations to try and remove the several quotas, corruption, wrong clubbing of institutions, lack of remuneration and that too if we try sincerely and persistently. When their life is at stake why will youngsters bother”.
Madhusudhan on the other hand feels it’s not about brain drain at all but a populist move to get votes. He also feels that if the government bans people from going to the US they will simply go to other countries with less stringent immigration rules.
Lastly Dr Sharma was pretty angry about the health minister’s statement and said it was unfair on medical students after all the hard work they have put in. He also had some choice comments about the minister that we can’t republish with a clear conscience though we can appreciate his sentiments.
There you go Mr Azad this is what the health.india.com readers feel about your proposal to make students sign bonds.
First Published: Apr 26, 2012 at 12:10 PM
It is simply ridiculous to force something on a particular group of person. If there are 3000 doctors immigrated in US in last 3 years, there are more than 10,000 engineers immigrate to US every year. There are more than 10,000 MBA immigrate to US every year. Why is the government not worried about the immigration of engineers/ MBA? It is illegal to hold the rights of an individual from going to different countries for work. Indian legislation says ” every individual in this world has the right to practice/ work in any part of the India or moving to different country to work”. As far as brain brain is concerned, they need to figure out the reason for brain drain, rather than implementing bonds.
Life of a medical professional is full of difficulties, you clear medical entrance tests after all the reservation and than seek admission in a medical college, study longer than an engineering graduate, work again for post graduation test and do three more years of study. After about 8-10 years of education, the salary of a doctor is less than that of a engineer of same batch, in-spite of working almost double the duty hours.
Mr. Azad, we are humans, not animals who can live without any money and work like an ass. People who leave India do that only after being tired of all the difficulties in life. No one in this world want to leave their family members and live in an unknown country until and unless there is a compelling reason, and the reason most of the time is “getting paid what you deserve”. People who say they are in support of government should think twice about the life of a doctor before they support the statement by Mr. Azad.
when health minister cannot create adequate no of seats for all undergraduates (MBBS) to do postgraduation .then how can he limit students going out. has he the right to withdraw ” right to higher education” to MBBS when he and his govt clearly lags in providing adequate no of seats of post graduation.
they have not increased no of seats for postgraduation in india. u can see from this years AIPGMEE 2012 result.
THERE’S A CRISIS.
PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO IT.
in this competitive india who does not wishes to get treatment from superspecialist? even a poor villager also
Yes Mr.Azad, if you really are worried about the doctors fleeing the country to study and not returning to render the services in India, you should look at the grass root level and actually feel the heat at every step a medical student goes through be it AIPMT, Pre-PG or superspecialization and actually work on drastically improving the working infrastructure and the seats etc and not slamming such a suicidal step on already pathetic and exhausted medicos.
Who is this minister who has proved his inferior and Low mental level publicly,,,
what is this ,, It is a crime to be born in india now,, what has the govt. given us,, first HUGE reservations,, now we can’t even go outside to better place to have a better life,,,
why dosen’t the govt. say in simple words– “WE WON”T LET A BRILLIANT MIND HAVE GOOD LIFE IN THIS COUNTRY, AND WE WON”T LET YOU GO OUTSIDE ALSO,,YOU HAVE TO SUFFER BECAUSE YOU WERE BORN IN INDIA,, THIS IS A CRIME AND YOU DESERVE TO BE PUNISHED NOW FOR WHOLE LIFE…”
GREAT country where the UNEDUCATED morons rule over the EDUCATED,,,
Nothing is left for a brilliant mind in india,, and now he/she can’t even leave this country,,
PATHETIC….
and have a good life in a place where atleast the educated wise people rule over educated…
1. it is a crime to be born in india
2. India is a JAIL especially for the talented…u won’t get a good life, neitherare u allowed to leave this JAIL and settle some good place at own will..
3. this system is already pathetic and now it will crack big time and i just wish the policy makers SUFFER the fate as much as they make us suffer..