Achchhe Din Unfolding: 13 ESI Medical Colleges to be Shut Down!
Jeopardizing Public Funded Health Care for Workers, Dismantling Public Medical Institutions – Modi Govt’s Continuing War on Common People’s Rights and Facilities!
In yet another assault on the public health system and on the public funded medical education, the Modi Govt. has decided to close down 13 Medical Education Institutions including medical colleges, dental colleges and nursing colleges which are run by the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). This is in continuation with a series of moves by the present govt. which have sought to massively cut down on public spending on providing basic facilities like health, education, employment. The medical education institutions were started by the ESIC in 2012-13. But in the Board Meeting of ESIC held on 4th January, 2015, the board headed by the Union Labour Minister Bhandaru Dattaraya decided to close down all the medical education institution run by the ESIC. Such a move will not only jeopardise the future of thousands of students presently enrolled, displace the teaching and non-teaching staff, but will also affect the hospitals and medical services under ESI, which as an institution, caters to the need of the unorganised working class of this country.
The shutting down of 13 medical education institutions is completely unacceptable. Firstly, this will mean a huge waste of public money as already around Rs. 5000 crores have been spent in constructing and running these institutions. Secondly, it will adversely affect the future of the two batches of students already enrolled in these institutions along with the teachers, paramedics and other staff. The student in these institutions are caught in a lurch as they are being offered two equally bad and undesirable options: complete their 5 year course at the present college or be transferred to a medical colleges run by the respective state govts. Transfer to state medical colleges will mean that the present batch of students would lose one or two years as they have to restart their education. Such an adjustment will also mean a cut in the number of seats for the state level students in the respective state level medical colleges for the coming two years. The second option of continuing in the same institution till the present batches finish their education and then shut them down is also not viable because the Medical Council of India (MCI) grants recognition only to those institutions that have batches in all five years. Since the ESIC Medical Colleges will have only two batches it is obvious that their degrees will not be recognised by the MCI.
Further, in closing down these public medical colleges, the govt is contradicting its own findings in its own Draft National Health Policy which clearly states that the private medical education institutions have failed to produce good well-trained doctors. The report also states that the govt. plans to establish around 50 more new medical colleges across the country to tackle the shortage of doctors in the country. Despite such findings and recommendations on paper, the Modi govt is proceeding with the decision to shut down the ESIC medical colleges. It is a common knowledge that health care facilities tend to be better in all those public hospitals which have attached educational and research centres- as we see in hospitals like AIIMS or Safdarjung. It is mandatory for the doctors, nurses and other medical personnel trained by the ESIC medical colleges to serve in the ESI hospitals for five years, thus ensuring smooth availability of quality skilled medical professionals in these hospitals.
ESI hospitals are meant to provide quality and affordable health care facility to the vast unorganised workers in the country. The move to close down the medical colleges run by the ESIC is a calculated attempt to downgrade the health services for the workers. Why can’t the Modi govt which brags of ‘smart governance’ ensure logical arrangement of takeover of the ESIC Medical Colleges by the Union Health Ministry, if the Labour Ministry is ‘unable’ to fund the ESIC medical colleges?
Let there be no mistake. The closing down of ESIC medical colleges is a part of the present government’s design to accelerate the process of privatising health care and public medical education and completely dismantle the network of public health care system. Indeed, the Modi. Govt. has launched an all-out attack on all social sector schemes be it expenditure in health and education or allocations for NREGA. It has now targeted public medical education by shutting down the ESIC run medical colleges.
The need of the hour is to resist and rebuff these attacks and save our public health care system and public medical education. Students of ESIC medical education institutions have launched a country wide movement to save their institutes. AISA stands shoulder to shoulder with them and lends full support and solidarity to them. AISA appeals to the students and teachers to come in support of the online signature petition and sign in huge numbers.
