Medicos in government medical colleges across the State went on a 24-hour strike from 8 a.m. on Friday demanding an increase in their monthly stipend.
All house surgeons, postgraduate medicos and senior residents participated in the strike. While hospital services were affected to a certain extent, services in the casualty, emergency operation theatre, labour rooms and intensive care units were not affected.
The striking medicos took out protest marches to the office of the Director of Medical Education at Thiruvananthapuram while in all other medical colleges, students marched to the office of the Principal.
Last hike
The students said that their stipend had been last hiked in 2015. Though the stipend is revised every two years, they had waited till March 2018 for a revision.
“We did not press the issue last year, with the State going through a Nipah scare and the deluge. However, we decided to organise a token strike as despite several discussions, the authorities have been unable to give us a firm assurance regarding our stipend revision,” one of the medicos said.
They said that their working environment was often hostile and their duty timings often extending to 36 to 48 hours and that it was only fair that their stipend was revised periodically.
Current stipend
House surgeons receive a monthly stipend of ₹20,000 and PG students, ₹43,000 to ₹45,000. Medicos said that they were awaiting a decision from the government and that they would be forced to go on an indefinite strike if they did not get a favourable response before June 20.
