100 foreign medical graduates not paid stipend by Govt for 5 months

Around hundred foreign medical graduate interns at the Government Medical College, Ambernath (GMC), have not been paid their stipend for the last five months. The Ambernath Citizens' Forum has sent a letter to Dr. Ajay Chandanwale, acting vice, chancellor of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS), informing him about this and has also warned that if the stipends are not released soon, they will take the matter to the Human Rights Commission and file a lawsuit against the college dean. An FMG or Foreign Medical Graduate is a person who is either a citizen of India or hold Overseas Citizenship of India, has done MBBS or equivalent medical degree abroad and wants to practise medicine in India. Oncoming FMGs are not permitted to work immediately after coming back and have to pass a compulsory licensing exam like the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam. When they pass this exam, they must do a one, year compulsory internship in a hospital recognized by the National Medical Commission. After that, they will be entitled to permanent registration with a State Medical Council.

Satyajit Burman, a member of the Ambernath Citizens’ Forum who raised the issue on social media, said, “These interns have been working day and night in the hospital without being paid a single rupee of their stipend of ₹18,000. They are spending on their daily commute, accommodation and other expenses from their own pocket. Not paying them a stipend for such a long period is inhuman and a violation of their human rights. Despite raising complaints, no one is listening to them.”

The college administration explained the payment of stipends was the authority of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), Maharashtra that had not yet released the funds. But the college, on humanitarian grounds, has already paid two months stipend to the interns by sourcing funds from other ways.

Dr Jai Ganesh, president of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), Ambernath, told HT, “The non-payment of stipends for five months is not the fault of GMC Ambernath alone. Medical colleges across the state that have foreign medical graduate interns have not received funds from DMER. Despite this, interns at GMC Ambernath were paid stipends for two months, which the college arranged from its own resources. There are also issues related to irregular attendance among some interns.”

Dr Santosh Verma, Dean of GMC Ambernath, told HT, “Our college is less than two years old and currently functioning from rented premises. This is only the second batch at the college, with around 100 foreign medical graduate interns. As we have not received funds from DMER for this batch, we were unable to pay the stipends. On humanitarian grounds, I arranged payments for two months, but beyond that it was not possible. Once the funds are received, the pending stipends will be cleared.”

Dr Verma added that not only interns, but faculty members as well as Class III and Class IV staff of the college had also not been paid their salaries.He also mentioned that faculty members reports on interns attendance were still awaiting to be submitted and that the attendance issues were being sorted out. I have had meetings with the interns' representatives to update them on the situation, he said.