Nursing strikes are on the rise, both at home and abroad. Reports from Bhopal announced a 2,500 strong nurses strike in government hospitals of Madhya Pradesh last month. The nurses demanded salary increases and improvement to work conditions.
The strike was held in face of the Indian governments? decision to invoke of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) on nursing services for three months. Coordinator of the Madhya Pradesh Nurses Association, Laxminarayan Sharma, was quick to label the strike a ?mass leave.? The government did not accept this excuse.
State Health Minister Mahendra Hardia said, ?Along with other demands, salaries at par with sixth pay commission recommendations have already been accepted for nurses. ESMA has been invoked in view of the agitation. Strict action will be taken against the striking nurses.?
The strike continued as planned, however. Sharma reported, ?We informed the government about going on mass leave long ago. Now, we are going for it.?
The strike was held on December 27, 2010 outside the main government hospital in Bhopal. Members of the nurses? associations gathered to shout their protests against the government, threatening increasing disturbances if their demands were unheeded.
"The government has not shown any sympathy towards us. Their decision is not acceptable to us. We are requesting them to sort this issue or else after seven days, all the nurses from every corner of the state would be on the roads," said Manju, Bhopal District President of the Nurses' Association.
Nurses complain that the Indian government has ignored their demand of implementing Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. While medical and technical staff are receiving salaries according to the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, nurses get salaries at rates fixed by the fourth panel.
The president of the UN Mehta Heart Institute Nursing Association, Hiten Patel, says that the nurses have been demanding leave benefits, a salary raise, mediclaim, fixed work hours, dearness allowance, and permanent jobs for the last nine months, but these requests have gone ungranted. He described the nurses? low salaries as a ?gross injustice.?
Unlike some of the nursing strikes here in the states, patients were the ultimate victims of the strike, as the government did not hire enough replacement workers for the day of the scheduled strike.
Hiten says that he asked 25 nurses to abstain from the strike so that critical patients could be taken care of.
Narendra Hardia, Health Minister of Madhya Pradesh, spoke before the strike of government preparedness saying, "We have taken strict steps to deal with the strike. We have asked the Health Department to arrange for additional staff so that the medical services are not affected. We are also asking the final year nursing students for help. The government has put ESMA on this and we will deal with them sternly if they don't resume work.?
Indeed, the second day of the strike, the police picked up 193 nurses from the U N Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre, and three nursing staff, including Hiten Patel, were put under suspension. Institute Director Dr. R.K. Patel said that he will not withdraw the suspension against the three office-bearers, and accuses them of forcing other nursing staff to join the strike - an accusation with Hiten Patel denies.