India’s Injustice Towards Intern Doctors In IIOJK

Young medical interns spend their nights in the hospitals in Indian-Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). There they have to handle cases of emergencies and intensive care that would have pushed even the most trained doctors to the limit. They are the first responders in a system which has no facilities. According to India, these doctors are compensated, but the compensation does not match the hard work. These Intern doctors even cannot afford the lunch in canteen with this payment. Thus, it is not only low wage, but is also an intentional humiliation posed as policy.

A Stipend Which Offends More than it Means

Medical interns are accepted as essential figures of the healthcare system across India, at least in theory. They make the connection between theory and practice, between classroom and ward. However, in IIOJK, they are a kind of cheap labor to the government. They received the lowest stipend in the country.

It is an insult on their profession, and also to humanity.

When the government cannot afford to pay its doctors, and also it is paying less than even the cost of their lunch, so it is not only under payment, but is also a humiliation of Kashmiri doctors.
One intern said it in simple words: “We are not demanding luxury but only dignity.” However, dignity is what the system is taking away from them.

Bureaucracy as a Weapon

Moreover, it is not just the quantity of this injustice, but the apathy. The file proposing the improvement of the stipend of the interns was thrown around among the departments in all directions like a shuttlecock, and at last was thrown in the wastebasket. The distance covered by that file between government offices was more than most ambulances in the area. Bureaucracy has taken the place of ICU in IIOJK, and every reform in IIOJK takes its last breath in this place, before it dies away.
This is not a lack of efficiency, but all this is done on purpose. The perpetual game of the file movement is a form of art that is mastered by the administration. So, red tape is used as armor and weapon.

Exploiting Compassion

Further, one evil that the government in IIOJK has perfected is taking advantage of sympathy. It is based on the self-sacrifice idea of young doctors, who are aware that their ethical obligation to the patients will not allow them to protest to a certain extent. The government even relies on their pity to conceal its indifference.
So, this is not a financial restraint, but it is moral bankruptcy. The very government that squanders money on PR campaigns and propagandas does not fulfill its obligation to make the required payments to the doctors. When the state is able to finance billboards, but cannot finance its doctors, then it is not the budget issue, however, it shows the priorities.

The Silence of the Powerful

Additionally, silence has been the response given to the cries of the interns. It is not the silence of helplessness, but the silence of arrogance. The fact that the Indian controlled administration does not even bother to listen to their demands is more than indifference, and it is disdain. This is a message to the young generation of IIOJK that no efforts or sacrifices, and no sleepless nights would make them respectable at home.

A government that fails to honor its doctors has no authority to mention the topic of health of the populace.

In a place where all careers are already strained by political oppression, to deprive medical employees of decent pay is to rob the very structure of proper governance.

A System Built on Hypocrisy

Moving forward, each week, there is a glossy post on the official social media accounts of modernized hospitals and better healthcare delivery. Behind those photos, however, there are some unpaid and unseen interns who manage that system. So, the saving of lives does not yield as much as serving tea, and this is not the problem of economy, but it is the lack of empathy. The management exists on slogans like health for all, but its actual troops are bleeding behind the scenes.
Besides, it is not the luxury that is demanded by the intern doctors in IIOJK, but it is the acknowledgment of their labor, skill and humanity which counts. However, the reaction of the government is an indication that they are a burden, rather than life line of the state.

A Mirror to Moral Collapse

It is not only an insult to those who stay in ICUs all the day, but it is also an insult to the conscience. It reveals how the government of IIOJK is morally bankrupt. It means young people should work at any cost, and they should not have any reward, and would possibly live without honor.
The administration is behind the wall of bureaucracy, as it points out the delays of the procedures. But everyone is aware that it is intentional hindrance.

The Cost of Indifference

On top of that, the economic consequences of this negligence far outweigh the economic benefits. It instills frustration in professionals who are important for the region. Some of these interns who had initially been excited about serving their communities are talking of leaving now, and are in search of a dignified alternative. So, any intern who gets poorly paid is a future physician lost to a potential migration, and any demand unheard is a broken fracture in an already broken healthcare system. That is the way that societies eat themselves up.
In a nutshell, it is not only money that is underpaid to intern doctors in IIOJK but also lack of respect. Below than average stipend is a representation of the way, in which a government that prides itself in preaching development, may treat its health care workforce as beggars. It represents an order of things, where red tape is held in high esteem than human life.
Thus, India should begin by appreciating its people, and should give them their rights whenever it talks of progress in IIOJK. Until then, every underpaid intern in IIOJK will be a silent spectator of the hypocrisy of a state, which preaches about healing, and cuts the throats of its healers.