Equal pay for equal work: Ayush practitioners demand COVID incentive at par with MBBS doctors

Dissatisfied over the meager amount of incentive paid to them by the government, the association stated that this kind of discrepancy in incentive structure among the doctors from different disciplines employed in the same work is not justified.

The General Secretary of the association, Dr. Chittaranjan Behera told Medical Dialogues, " While allopathy doctors who serve COVID duties get an incentive of Rs 1,000 per day apart from their regular monthly remuneration for Covid management since April last year. We approached the authorities a number of times after which the state government approved almost Rs 700 for Ayurveda doctors employed in COVID wards and Rs 375 per day for Homeopathy and Ayurveda interns, who were serving as part of Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) since May 1."

" What is shocking is that the paramedical staff who accompany the Ayurveda interns and doctors leading RRTs also get more incentive than what they get", the doctor added. The incentive is less than that of a staff nurse, radiographer, and multi-purpose health worker, who has been getting approximately Rs 612, Rs 552 and Rs 462 per day respectively, reports The New Indian Express.

The government has also added that the contact tracing teams can not avail the incentive as they are not in direct contact with confirmed Covid-19 positive cases.

The Odisha Government Ayurvedic Physicians' Association said that the Ayush doctors have served during the pandemic just like MBBS doctors with equal dedication and hard work, and they contributed to the workforce during the Covid times. However, they are not being paid on par with their MBBS counterparts.

"There must not be any biased attitude towards AYUSH doctors. We are asking for equal pay for equal work which is a legitimate demand. In all other states are treated as Class I employees," General Secretary Dr Chittaranjan Behera said.