Private medical colleges are significantly reducing their expenses by either completely withholding stipends for MBBS interns and resident doctors or providing them with an amount far lower than what government medical colleges offer. As per information provided to the National Medical Commission (NMC), 60 colleges, 33 government colleges and 27 private colleges, were reported to be giving no stipend to MBBS interns.
Most of the private medical colleges have not even made public the stipend figures they offer. Initially, the NMC warned of potential action against these colleges for failing to submit the required information. However, instead of taking strict measures, the regulatory body has now shifted responsibility to state authorities.
Thousands of MBBS students engaged in clinical duties during their internship year are earning wages below the national floor minimum of Rs 5,300 per month, as per data submitted by the NMC to the Supreme Court. Reports from 20 private colleges indicate that stipends range from Rs 5,000 or even lower, with some colleges outright admitting they do not pay any stipend at all. Although this data was available to the NMC since July last year, no steps have been taken to hold the institutions accountable.
As per the NMC’s PG Medical Education Regulation 2023, private colleges are mandated to offer resident doctors stipends equivalent to what state government colleges provide. However, the NMC’s 2021 Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship Regulations do not clearly define the stipend for MBBS interns. The clause merely states that "all interns shall be paid stipend as fixed by the appropriate authority applicable to the institution/University or State." Taking advantage of this vague language, several private colleges pay their MBBS interns meager amounts.
Dr. KV Babu, an RTI activist who has been persistently advocating for this issue for over five years, pointed out that he had alerted the health ministry in 2022 about the ambiguous wording in the stipend clause when it was open for public feedback. He later raised objections when his suggestions were not implemented and urged the authorities to mandate parity between stipends in private and government colleges within each state. However, neither the health ministry nor the NMC has acted on the matter.
Some private medical colleges offer stipends as low as Rs 2,000 per month while charging exorbitant fees. For instance, in Andhra Pradesh, government medical colleges provide MBBS interns with Rs 22,500 per month, whereas many private institutions offer a mere Rs 2,000-5,000. The tuition fee for an MBBS course in these private colleges ranges from Rs 65 lakh for management quota students to over Rs 1.2 crore for NRI quota students. A private college with approximately 150 seats would need to allocate around Rs 4 crore annually if they matched government stipends. However, by underpaying interns, a college can save over Rs 2 crore per year while collecting around Rs 50 crore from tuition fees alone.
The situation is similar in Karnataka, where government medical colleges pay MBBS interns Rs 30,000 per month, but many private colleges provide only Rs 10,000-12,000. The annual tuition fees in these institutions can go as high as Rs 25-45 lakh for management and NRI seats. In Pondicherry, government colleges offer a stipend of Rs 20,000, but a deemed university medical college with 250 seats—where tuition fees stand at Rs 25 lakh per annum—pays only Rs 5,000. While collecting more than Rs 1.2 crore from every MBBS student, such colleges spend less than Rs 1 lakh on stipends for each student.
There is also significant variation in stipend figures between government colleges in different states. While government interns are paid Rs 35,000 in Assam, their Uttar Pradesh counterparts get a mere Rs 12,000. MBBS students have always asked for a centrally governed and standardized stipend for both government and private colleges. But the NMC kept silent on this until the Supreme Court directed that stipend payment be made compulsory. The court case is ongoing as the NMC argues over difficulty in obtaining data from medical colleges. Rather than directly approaching the colleges within its purview, the commission has written several letters to different state directorates of medical education, requesting them to gather and provide stipend payment information.
Some states, such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Manipur, Nagaland, and the union territories of Chandigarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, have not released any information. Rajasthan government colleges pay Rs 14,000 as stipend, Jharkhand Rs 17,000, Chhattisgarh Rs 15,900, and Madhya Pradesh approximately Rs 14,000. A long time back, there were calls for parity but the problem still persists, leaving MBBS interns in private colleges financially strapped.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Sai Sindhuja K/MSM)