Last three months, nurses in various hospitals in Kerala have finally found their voices and have started demanding dignified wages. The private medical care business has grown leaps and bounds in the last decade. Many private medical colleges have sprung up in the state too. The relative prosperity of the Kerala population and its health consciousness, although buoyed mostly by Gulf remittances, has provided a fertile environment for the private medical business boom.
That nurses are critical part of a medical team and they need to be accorded required respect is plain commonsense. However, the greedy hospital managements take advantage of easy availability of nurses in the state and have no compunctions in making them work under exploitative conditions.
As per the reports in newspapers many nurses get paid between Rs 2500 and Rs 6500 per month. Assuming, they work only for 8 hrs a day for 25 days in a month, at a salary of Rs 3000/month, the daily wages amount to Rs 120. A domestic worker in Trivandrum city, who works for 5-6 hrs/day, typically takes Rs 120-140 per day. I am sure the hospital managements are aware of the cost of getting domestic help.
Many of the nurses take loans for their studies and in the end get into situation where they are not able to pay back loans leading tragedies.
It is clear as day that the agitation of nurses for humane conditions is fully justified and should be supported by all. I hoped that at least the hospitals run by highly revered spiritual leaders in our society will take a judicious stand on this issue.
But that does not seem to be the case. Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences(AIMS) is a prestigious medical institution run by Mata Amritanandamayi Math. Mata Amritanandamayi is a revered spiritual leader in Kerala and elsewhere. I have read Mata’s teachings about kindness and justice and have always found lot of comfort in them. Recently, I read a report that AIMS had hired goons to intimidate and assault striking nurses. The hospital spokesman has accepted that the assault has taken place but that the hospital had no role in this. He seems to suggest that the nurses hired goons to get themselves beaten up.
The situation is not better in medical institutions run by Catholic Church. As the agitation spreads, many institutions run by spiritual leaders will have to make the choice that we ordinary mortals do almost everyday – to be or not be just. Unfortunately the indications are that these spiritual establishments need some prodding from ordinary people to follow the spiritual path.
Anyway, it seems goons in Kerala and neighbouring states will be in demand to “rein in” nurses demanding dignity and minimum wages.
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