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After hearing about health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s plan to make doctors sign bonds that will force them to come back to India after completing their education in the USA, this is what the health.india.com readers had to say -
The Government’s move is a welcome one according to Vijayan Nair. He added, “For years, many students study medicine and their education is paid for by the Indian taxpayer but they aren’t willing to serve the country on one pretext or the other. It needs to stop immediately. Facilities can be developed simultaneously. 5-year leave for going to abroad should be reduced to 2 years only. Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad’s move is good and it will help stop major brain drain.”
Replying to Nair’s comments, Raj said, “India has poor medical institutions and it will take at the least 20 years to improve the condition of the infrastructure, that too with a proactive government encouraging PPP. Why should any doctor work in a place where he does not have adequate facilities to protect himself from HIV/ MDR-TB? Why should IIT students be allowed to leave the country? What do you expect any doctor to learn in 2 years? The courses are designed keeping human limitations in mind.”
Another reader Om Singh supported the government’s move. He added that doctors educated in government institutions with the taxpayers’ money shouldn’t be allowed to have their own private practice.
Most other readers however vehemently opposed the idea.
According to B.A. Shiva Shankar it’s a shame the government would force doctors to sign such a bond. After going through a terrible ordeal to study and pass the exams if a young doctor joins a government service he earns around Rs 12,000 pm, a lot lower than a software engineer’s Rs 20,000. Add to that the fact that doctors have to work under terrible conditions and find it hard to get government postings. He feels Mr Azad needs to think about the facilities and conditions these doctors work under before forcing them to sign bonds. “We face such dire conditions because of the people at the helm of affairs, so let them bother about improving facilities at home, and giving doctors their dues so they don’t feel the need to leave their motherland”, he added.
Joe felt that the government has no right to decide where a person should or shouldn’t work. If they are bothered about the taxpayers’ money, they can ask the doctors to pay back the funds spent on their education.
Raj, a doctor, was particularly scathing about the quota system that he feels has corrupted the system enough. He feels this move is similar to earlier government policies that has led to these circumstances.
Baldev questions why only doctors should be singled out and whether engineers, IT professionals, etc. should also come under this rule. He feels the government should look to improve the infrastructure here so people don’t need to leave to look for work outside the country.
Dr Rekha Jagannath feels that such a forced plug won’t help. “We need generations to try and remove the several quotas, corruption, wrong clubbing of institutions, lack of remuneration and that too if we try sincerely and persistently. When their life is at stake why will youngsters bother”.
Madhusudhan on the other hand feels it’s not about brain drain at all but a populist move to get votes. He also feels that if the government bans people from going to the US they will simply go to other countries with less stringent immigration rules.
Lastly Dr Sharma was pretty angry about the health minister’s statement and said it was unfair on medical students after all the hard work they have put in. He also had some choice comments about the minister that we can’t republish with a clear conscience though we can appreciate his sentiments.
There you go Mr Azad this is what the health.india.com readers feel about your proposal to make students sign bonds.