Interns protest absence of stipends, basic facilities at BMCRI

Students of B.Sc. Allied Health Sciences at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), who are currently doing the mandatory internship, held a strike on Wednesday protesting absence of internship stipends and lack of basic facilities.

“Repeated requests from usto the officials for stipends have been ignored. This is placing a significant financial burden on the students,” said one of the students, who participated in the strike. Around 150 students participated in the protest.

Financial burden on students

After completing three years of academic study, Allied Health Sciences students are required to undergo one year of compulsory internship.

The revised guidelines of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), under which BMCRI comes, encourage a monthly stipend for the interns wherever possible. However, does not mandate it.

While there are regulations mandating stipend payment for MBBS and BDS interns, no such statutory rule exists for allied health sciences. This puts the students in a difficult position, the interns said.

“We perform full-time clinical duties, including night shifts. We actively contribute to patient care, often working for 8-12 hours. But all this goes unpaid. While the other students get hostel facilities, interns don’t. This means we have to stay in private facilities, and the lack of stipend causes financial burden for us,” they note.

‘Inadequate facilities’

The protesting students further pointed out that their counterparts at other institutions, such as Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, IGICH, Sanjay Gandhi Institute, and Jayadeva Institute, Allied Health Sciences, receive monthly allowances between ₹7,000 to ₹15,000.

Concerns around alleged lack of government-mandated provisions, including separate faculty, adequate infrastructure, and dedicated academic buildings for Allied Health Sciences courses, were flagged by the students.

‘Matter of policy decision’

Asima Banu, principal at BMCRI, noted that stipends to the Allied Health Sciences interns are a matter of government policy decision.

“There is some funding, and we are trying to get an Allied Health Sciences building for them. But the stipend is a government policy decision. No Allied Health Sciences interns in any of the medical colleges, be it BMC or MMC, are being given stipends currently. There is some movement in that direction; But currently we have no provision to give it at BMC alone,” said Ms. Banu.

“A few super specialty standalone hospitals may be giving some amount, but they do it from their funds,” she added.