Teaching faculty at several state-run hospitals complain that they have not received their nominal Rs 1,500 honorarium for over two years; also of discrimination over retirements and contracts
JJ Hospital falls under Grant Medical College umbrella
You would assume that an honorarium faculty at a prestigious medical institute would imply the peak of well-paid gigs. You would be wrong to assume that, especially in the case of professors, associate professors and assistant professors at 14 state-run medical colleges, three state-run dental colleges and four state-run ayurvedic colleges, who are paid a measly Rs 1,500 per month; for both their lectures and expert medical services.
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To add insult to injury, for the last two years, these regular contractual teachers (RCTs) have even been deprived of this. Dr Vijay Tapase, Hon. Professor of Surgery attached to Grant Medical College and also the President of Honorary Doctors Association confirmed this to mid-day and said, “This is a clear case of discrimination between the medical teachers, those who are state employees and honoraries. While honorary teachers are paid a peanut stipend of Rs 1,500 per month, full-time teachers are paid anything between Rs 70,000 to Rs 1.50 lakh. However, for the last two years, we have been deprived of this too. I have written letters highlighting our plight to the health minister. Grant Medical College runs four hospitals — St Georges, JJ, Cama and GT Hospital — and in all have around 100 such RCTs in the city and another 180 across Maharashtra.”
Age limit barriers
Another issue rubbing the honoraries the wrong way is the state government’s attempt to circumvent a Government Regulation (GR) in 2010, which states that the faculty age for retirement has been raised from 58 to 62; the college insists the visiting faculty must not be older than 58 years and that they may only be reappointed for a period of 364 days — with a gap of one day.
Dr Tapase explained, “While the state government has increased the retirement age limit to 62 with a three-year extension possible on a contractual basis, it is denied to the honorary teachers. Due to a scarcity of medical professionals, even the Medical Council of India has allowed teaching faculty to continue till the age of 65 to 70 years, then why are we made a scapegoat?”
Where’s the stipend?
Another RCT member said, “Earlier, we were paid our monthly honorarium by cheque, but later we were asked to compulsorily open a bank account, but no deposit has been made there for over two years.”
While attempts to contact Dr Praveen Shingare, Director Medical Education and Research (DMER) did not yield any result, a senior official, on condition of anonymity, said, “We will have to check the reason as to why the payment is not getting credited into the RCTs accounts. We will check with the accounts department and revert.”
Job entails all
“We (RCTs) are expected to do everything that is done by a full-time doctor —attend to VVIP patients like Chhagan Bhujbal, Vinod Tawade’s father-in-law or Indrani Mukerjea, etc. We have to attend to out-patient department (OPD) once in a week; conduct rounds three to four times per week, teach both under-graduate and post-graduate medical students, but still be treated differently for no fault of ours,” the senior doctor said, adding, “We have not even bothered about the meagre stipend, but this discrimination and lobbying by the regular faculty hurts and it is unprofessional.”
Examination grouse
“Moreover,” Dr Tapase said, “Earlier when MBBS and post-graduate exams were conducted, all teachers, including honorary, would conduct the examination, but now we are not appointed as examiners. A teacher, if not an examiner, is an insult to him. This is yet another discrimination against us when we, with over three decades of experience are made to report to our juniors.”
Dean defends
When contacted, Dr TP Lahane, dean of Grant Medical College, said, “The government order is only for full-time faculty members and not for honorary teaching faculty,” adding that as far as the pending stipend was considered, “We are in the process of depositing the money into bank accounts. Out of 100 RCTs, we have got continuation orders for 89 RCTs, who will get their money with arrears.”
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