Karnataka budget: Medicos, docs say mandatory rural service is harsh

Even as the medical students and doctors have often expressed reservations against making it mandatory to serve in rural areas, the state budget has come as a shocker to them.

The 2012-13 budget has made it mandatory for all undergraduate and post-graduate students to serve a year in the rural areas, after successful completion of the course and also decided to increase the penalty for defaulters. Industry officials feel this is a harsh measure and could have been packaged better. “The legislation is harsh on the students. It could have been done in a nicer way by making them volunteer for it, instead of forcing them to serve in the rural areas. The method used for this is wrong,” said Dr Venkataramana, vice-chairman and chief neurosurgeon, BGS Global Hospitals.

Doctors feel that there is a need for better facilities in the rural areas, before making legislative rules like this one. “The rural hospitals and health centres don’t have basic facilities like toilets or duty doctor’s resting room or medicines and equipment. There is no real incentive either to go to the health centres. The government could give students credits for going to the villages and serving there or give them a fellowship if they serve there, so that they can come back to the cities and study further. With no perks, no student would want to go to the villages,” Venkataramana said.

Moreover, the issue of pay scale has plagued the doctors for years now. “An engineering student gets paid Rs25,000 to 30,000 after graduation, but a doctor does not get that kind of income, while they put in much more money and hardship. If the government makes better provision in the villages, such as better health centres, better homes with clean water, toilets and electricity, any doctor would go happily. There are three main issues in villages: water borne diseases, indoor air pollution and hygiene. For this, a post-graduate is not required, even an MBBS graduate can be sent. Sending a PG student to the villages makes little sense,” said Dr H Paramesh, Lakeside hospital.

However, some advocate that such a move has made basic health facility available to all. “We require skilled nurses and doctors in villages. And this move should address the issue to some extent,” said Rajen Padukone, CEO, Manipal Hospitals.
Students are also unhappy with this move. “We study for close to six or seven years before seeing any income. Even if we have to go to rural areas, is the government making our life easy there? Our incomes are meagre and cannot sustain us for a whole year.

The water, electricity and communication facilities, equipment and road connectivity are all poor,” said Abhijith Shoan, a medical student.