None of the health workers working at the five hospitals under the North Municipal Corporation of Delhi have been paid their dues for at least three months. In a couple of the hospitals, they have not been paid since May. All the MCDs in Delhi are under the control of the BJP.
Though its mostly doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital who have been protesting, health workers of all the five hospitals under north MCD – Hindu Rao Hospital, Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, Maharishi Valmiki Institute of Infectious Diseases, Mrs Girdhari Lal Maternity Hospital and Rajan Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis – have written multiple letters to the north MCD mayor Jai Prakash demanding payment of their salaries. Several of the health workers across these hospitals have been on strike periodically and have stated that they would go on strike again.
At Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, the resident doctors who were protesting got their salaries for the month of June in October. “Salaries for the last three months are yet to be given. The resident doctors protested, so they got paid. The others who didn’t, have not been paid. The senior residents, junior residents and all the PG students are on indefinite strike till the dues are paid completely,” said Dr Sunil Kumar, RDA president of the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, which is located near Jama Masjid in old Delhi.
However, the nurses and para-medical staff have not been paid for the last four months, while the nursing orderlies and ward boys have not been paid since July. “We have met the north MCD mayor Jai Prakash. When we met him more than two weeks ago, he promised that salaries would be paid in the two weeks. As it hasn’t been paid, we will have to meet him again. It’s not enough that we work, but we have to fight for getting paid as well. We don’t have too many options. We will also sit outside on a 24-hour strike if our salaries are not paid,” explained Manjulata, general secretary of the hospital’s nursing union. There is discrimination even while releasing the salaries, she underscored.
The situation is the same at Hindu Rao Hospital too, whose doctors protested at Jantar Mantar earlier this week. “As we have been protesting, all the staff got paid for the month of June. But we still have to be paid for the remaining three months (July, August and September). With the festival season around the corner, several of us cannot manage without an income,” said Dr Abhimanyu, RDA president of Hindu Rao Hospital.
At RBIPMT Hospital, which is Asia’s biggest TB Hospital, protests have been on intermittently for the last two months. “Initially, the staff at Hindu Rao began protesting and then we all joined in. As we are in the midst of a pandemic, we have not taken any drastic steps. The doctors are yet to get paid from July onwards, while the nursing and para medical staff have not been paid since June. This situation is not new. It has been going on for a few years,” said Dr Mahendran CS, RDA president of RBIPMT Hospital.
