Bond policy issue raised at NHRC meeting, Is abolishing likely?

New Delhi: The issue of Bond policy was raised during the meeting held today by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). In the meeting, the National Medical Commission (NMC) officials including the Chairman Dr B Gangadhar and Secretary Dr B Srinivas were also present and the Commission expressed its plans regarding the bond policy in India.

The NHRC meeting was conducted to discuss the issues of mental health and mental well-being of medical students across the country. 

Speaking about the session, the National Chairman of the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), Dr. Rohan Krishnan, who also participated in the meeting, told Medical Dialogues, "The major statement that was made was that NMC is planning for a bond-free India. FAIMA has worked very hard on this for several years. FAIMA demanded that the bond policy should be revised and the States where there is a scarcity of doctors, in those States also bond policy should be reconsidered. All these things were discussed in the meeting."

Meanwhile, notifying about the meeting, NHRC mentioned in an X (formerly Twitter) post, "NHRC core group meeting in hybrid mode on health and mental health begins. It focuses on discussing issues of bonds in medical colleges, the rights of patients, the rights of doctors, and problems in disbursal of stipend to doctors."

Also Read: Breaking News: NMC Asks States to do Away with Seat leaving Bond

Apart from the NMC officials, the meeting was also attended by the stakeholders from the Health Department, Health Secretary, Chairman of NHRC, representatives of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA), representatives from the United Doctors Front Association (UDFA).

Dr. Rohan Krishnan informed that issues like bond policy, patient welfare, healthcare structure of the nation including what will happen in the future- all these things were discussed in the meeting.

"Doing away with the seat-leaving bond can be a stepping stone in lessening the mental burden on the medical students and we appreciate the efforts of NMC in this regard," he further added.

In an X post, Dr. Krishnan mentioned, "Took part in a meeting Organised by @India_NHRC Glad to Hear that @NMC_IND Chairman wishes to abolish bond policy pan India. Also, NMC has taken a positive stand on Stipend given to interns,PGs. However, I have again raised the issue of improvement in various aspects of healthcare for *Mental Health and Mental well being of UG and Pg Residents."

Medical Dialogues had previously reported that earlier this year, taking cognisance of the issue of seat-leaving bond policy, NMC wrote to the Principal Secretary of Health and Medical Education of all States and Union Territories and asked them review the said policy and preferably do away with the same.

The Apex Medical Commission issued this direction after the Anti-Ragging Committee of NMC held a meeting on 9th January 2024 to address the mental health concerns of PG medical students and recommended the State/UT to review the seat leaving policy in medical colleges and to do away the same.

As an alternative, NMC recommended that the States may consider debarring the students for admission in their States for the next one year.