The issue of the poor stipend being paid to medical students studying in self-financing and private medical colleges in the country seems to have finally caught the attention of the National Medical Commission (NMC), which has announced the initiation of a survey among students to ascertain the stipend details.
While NMC’s attempts to study the issue of student stipends is very welcome, the NMC’s own regulation on student stipends — Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship regulations, 2021 — is pretty vague on the stipend that needs to be paid to MBBS interns, it is pointed out.
“Clause 6.3 on stipends in NMC’s regulations on medical internships just states that the stipend shall be fixed by the appropriate fee-fixing authority with respect to the university/institution. This in itself has given the opportunity for private medical college managements to deny decent stipend to MBBS interns,” says Babu K.V., a public health activist.
