Resident doctors stage protest, demand fee reduction, Covid risk allowance

Bengaluru: Resident doctors on Thursday staged an online protest wearing black badges and holding placards, demanding reduction in tuition fees, formation of a legal cell to look into violence against medical professionals, and a Covid-19 risk allowance. The doctors alleged that despite staging protests earlier, the government was yet to respond to their demands. They threatened to stage a week-long protest.

The doctors wore black badges while on duty across different medical colleges in the State on Monday, while on Tuesday, they recorded videos of themselves, expressing their difficulties and listing out their demands, which were then posted on social media. On Wednesday, the resident doctors took to social media to air their grievances, while on Thursday, they held up placards with their demands and uploaded the pictures on social media. They plan to take to social media on Saturday, with the hashtags #ReducePgDoctorsAcademicFees and #ImplementLegalCell to further highlight their issues.

According to the Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors (KARD), several resident doctors have decided to withhold paying their academic fees until their demands are met. They say that the fees in Karnataka government colleges is much higher compared to other States. They have asked the government to take into consideration their services during the pandemic and reduce the fees.

According to the agitating doctors, the fees has been hiked to Rs 1.29 lakh as compared to Rs 28,000- Rs 29,000 collected from the previous batch students. "We are asking the government to reduce our fees to the previous level, considering our hard work during the pandemic," said a post-graduate resident doctor.

KARD has also sought the creation of a legal cell by the government, consisting of legal experts and doctors, to look into violence and attacks against medical professionals by family members of patients and ensure necessary action is taken against them. Since the pandemic began, several reports surfaced of doctors being physically and verbally abused

The third demand raised by the resident doctors was that the government must immediately provide a Covid-19 risk allowance. In the statement, KARD warned the government of more protests. "Resident doctors were made to work hard during the Covid-19 crisis and it's not acceptable if their needs are neglected. All the demands are just. The entire resident doctor fraternity stood by the government in handling the crisis. It is the least that the government can do to benefit the resident doctors."