Rajasthan resident doctors await release of their documents

NEW DELHI: The resident doctors in Rajasthan are protesting over the new bond policy for medical students that is forcibly being implemented on the doctors who have completed their PG. Many resident doctors of the 2019-batch are still jobless and waiting for their documents that are kept with their respective medical colleges.
The Sunday Guardian spoke to a student in 2019, who was a student at the government medical college in Rajasthan. On the condition of anonymity, the student said, “I have been sitting jobless and my documents are with the college and whenever we go and ask them, the officers say that after the completion of the tenure, we would release the documents. However, my tenure was completed on 2 May this year; it has been more than five months but still, the college has not returned my documents.” He further added, “Apart from unemployment, many qualified doctors are forced to occupy substandard posts.”
Currently, as per the notification on 12 July, the Rajasthan government has reduced the bond policy period from 5-year to 2-year and the penalty to fulfil the bond condition is Rs 25 lakh. The students serving the bond policy can work as senior doctors at state-run medical colleges, assistant professors after the completion of senior residency, junior residents and so on. Prior to two months before the end of the PG and SS courses, the concerned students will be assigned to various postings by their respective departments and many more.
However, the new bond policy may be too good to sound but the medical students in Rajasthan continue to protest against the new bond policy. As per the document received by The Sunday Guardian, the Jaipur Association of Resident Doctors (JARD) has listed out the defaults in the bond policy such as lack of transparency, no job guarantee in the five-year policy, no salaries provided during Covid service and so forth. The document roughly translated into English states, “There has been a lack of transparency in the bond policy framed by the State Government; several candidates after clearing the diploma posts will be appointed as senior residents that reflects a major flaw in the policy. Also, the resident doctors have been struggling without a 5-month income. The bond policy was supposed to start before the examination this year and is now 6-months late, which is a mid-period for all the resident doctors. The policy serves as an injustice to in-service resident doctors and the bond must take them into consideration so that in future, in-service PG doctors should also be qualified to apply for Assistant professor. A committee must be set up to address the discrepancies and frame a proper bond that shows transparency and proper recruitment of the resident doctors. Some posts are also filled through a lateral entry that must immediately be stopped and resent to the concerned department and the posts must be filled properly to serve equal chances for all. Unless the demands are met, the resident doctors will continue the protest.” JARD president Dr Neeraj Damor told this correspondent, “The government is not taking up the issue so we are protesting. The documents of the 2019-batch are kept and that is against the employment right.”