Rs 11000 salary for MBBS doctors, Rs 11000 salary for 8th pass Wardboy: Hospital vacancy ad faces backlash

Bengaluru: The concept of doctors talking about their salaries has never been popular in a country like India, where healthcare is seen as a free service. Prioritizing patients' safety and security over their own, doctors are often neglected when it comes to getting rightful salaries and quality facilities. 

They are often forced to work overtime for hours along with night duties with many emergency surgeries and procedures per week having a low salary which has become a current trend. It becomes even more aggravating when a person has spent between 50 lacks to 1 crore on his medical education to get a lower salary package.

With doctors and professors protesting and fighting against unequal pay in the medical field, yet again another issue of pay disparity has come to the fore through an advertisement. The disparity was clearly visible in the recent job advertisement by a Kripa Foundation of Itanagar Capital Region in Arunachal Pradesh inviting applications of clinical psychologist, senior counsellor, counsellor, male nurse/ANM, Yoga therapist, medical officer at a rehabilitation centre in Itanagar. 

The advertisement immediately drew backlash from doctors across the country who questioned how can a salary of a qualified MBBS doctor be same as an 8th pass passed security guard or cook. The entire medical fraternity expressed their anger over the disconcerting pay gap of a medical officer among other staff and slammed the Arunachal Pradesh government for the inequality in payment.  

The advertisement showed that a MBBS qualified medical officer has been offered comparatively low salary compared to cooks, male nurses, security guard, office assistant and yoga practitioners at the centre. 

The ad mentioned that the monthly salary for a clinical psychologist and senior counsellor would be Rs 20,000, while that of a male nurse, therapist and data entry personnel would be Rs 15,000. A cook, security guard, office assistant and medical officer would be given Rs 11,000 monthly.

Requirements about the qualification and number of posts vacant at the centre was also shared by the De-addiction cum rehabilitation centre at Lekhi, Itanagar that is backed by the Arunachal Pradesh government and is affiliated with the Union Ministry of social justice and empowerment.

Also read- What An Irony- When Junior SRs Get Paid More Than Senior Assistant Professors!

Taking the matter to twitter, Dr Sudhir Kumar, a neurologist at Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad said "A doctor with MBBS qualification is offered the same salary as that of a class 8th passed security guard or cook. Take home message for school students: Become an MBBS doctors only for doing social service."

Commenting on this, a Twitter user who is a doctor said "Still hordes of students going to China, Phillipines, Russia and what not to get an MBBS degree.If this is the state of Indian MBBS degrees, imagine their fate." 

The shared post evoked many opinions among the medical fraternity who blamed the government for the present scenario of the doctors in the healthcare field and wanted a change in the salary of the medical officer in the advertisement.

Immediately after the backlash from the medical fraternity, the Kripa Foundation reviewed the advertisement and released the updated advertisement where the salary of the medical officer has been offered as Rs 35,000 for part time basis. 

The updated advertisement noted that in supersession of the earlier advertisement in The Arunachal Times dated 15 April, 2023, the Kripa Foundation supported by the government of Arunachal Pradesh for implementation of the drug de-addiction cum Rehabilitation Centre at Lekhi, Itanagar invited application of a medical officer with a salary offered as Rs 35,000. 

Later, Dr Sudhir shared the new released updated version of the advertisement on Twitter saying that it was a typing error and the advertisement has been clarified.