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The MARD Strike … 

Dear Sir or Madam,
With reference to the currently ongoing MARD resident doctors’ strike I have some very strong feelings which I should express and make known to the readers of your esteemed newspaper. I feel that the demands put forth by the striking doctors are totally unjustified. I beg to be allowed to explain:

Let us first consider their demands for better living conditions. How can they complain about the inadequacy of living space? They are after all getting the grand opportunity of sleeping with six or seven others in the same room. Imagine the brotherhood and bonding that is fostered between the resident doctors under these living conditions! Don’t they realize that our honourable Health Minister has these high patriotic ideals in his mind. So what if many of the rooms do not have any ventilation. That is why there is a fan in every room. Even our honourable Health Minister does not have an air-conditioner in every room in his house. And surely, the Resident Medical Officers (RMOs) cannot expect to get single or double-shared rooms! Even most of the minister’s side-kicks sorry, assistants do not have that luxury. In any case, for the most of their thirty-six to forty-eight hour duties, the resident doctors are away working in their wards; it would be a waste issuing them these rooms. Also, they have even been provided with 1 toilet and 1 bathroom for every 15 –20 R.M.O.s. Most of Mumbai’s population which lives in the slums do not have such facilities.

Let us then consider their demands for adequate safety measures like gloves, masks etc. while working in the hospitals. They have no right to be holding the patients’ health to ransom for such petty reasons. So what if they have to endanger their own health in the course of their work. So what if they have to deal with patients with diseases like AIDS, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B and many other diseases which our concientious Health Minister is not even aware of. That is their job, isn’t it? The honourable minster has explained to them so well that they should not shirk their duty. It is a different issue that even after 50 years of independence our Ministry of Health has not been able to provide complete primary health care to even 60% of the population. The honourable minister has more important things on his mind, like preparing for the next elections; he cannot be bothered with trivialties.

The most scandalous of the all of the MARD’s demands is the increase in their stipend. How can they make a bizarre request like that?! They are getting almost as much as the honourable minister’s housemaid does. Doesn’t the latter manage to live on that pay? The RMOs complain that many of them are married and some even have children to support. Are bhai? Who asked you to get married? And on top of that, have children? Haven’t you heard of family planning? The RMOs then say that most of their stipend is spent on their post-graduate textbooks. What a waste of money! Don’t they know that most of the ministers have reached their exalted position without even reading a single graduate book, leave alone a post-graduate textbook! They protest that the class IV workers get better pay than they do. Of course they do, and they deserve it. They have worked so hard to build such a strong union, having such strong political influence. Ah, the wise minister knows, thousands of Class IV worker votes infinitely overshadow few hundred RMO votes. Leave aside the fact that the former will not work for a second more than their stipulated eight hours duty while R.M.O.s have to work for twenty-four, sometimes forty-eight hours at a stretch. Also, consider the fact that the Class IV workers are so important to the society. They strike work for just two days and the garbage starts rotting outside honourable minister’s bungalow causing untold misery and agony. What if the R.M.Os strike work? Only a few hundred poor people who are dependent on the General Hospitals will die. Surely the honourable minister can’t be bothered with such insignificant matters. After all he wouldn’t be aware of these things; his pains and aches are always taken care of at any of the Five Star Hospitals in Mumbai. And for more serious illnesses, there’s always our faithful U.S. of A. Besides, the striking doctors can always be replaced by the A.M.O.s from the interior District hospitals and Primary Health Centres. It’s a different matter altogether that they cannot hope to have and apply the same training and expertise in the speciality medical fields as the R.M.O.s but what are the people to know? After all, all doctors are the same to them. Our honourable health minister’s concience is intact; he has provided doctors for the patients; the poor patients which been inconvenienced by the bad, naughty and irresponsible R.M.Os. The cry goes around the entire state, Three Cheers for the Health Minister! His virtuous act will definitely chalk up key brownie points in the next election.

The RMOs are so inconsiderate! Have they not thought the extra burden on the State Treasury should the Government concede to their demands? Are baba, the tax payers money cannot be wasted on these unimportant matters. There is better use for them, like buying cars, sponsoring Minsters’ (and their families’) frequent trips to Delhi and abroad, spending on their opulent lifestyles, paying for their expensive lunches and dinners etc. In this manner, I hope I have conveyed to the readers of this letter the element of the situation and what I want to say.

Thanking you,

Dr Pranav Kodial