As the Golden Jubilee Meet scheduled in February 2024 draws closer, I have a couple of blogs to complete. I will try to share these blogs with you in coming days.
The year was 1980 and the month November and winter was beginning to set in. But there was already a chill in our career paths. I do know how many of you remember all that happened in the final month of our house jobs. Let me help you recall these events.
- Darbara Singh was the Chief Minister of Punjab and S. Hardyal Singh IAS the Secretary Health and Medical Education. The government had taken certain decisions which were detrimental to our interests. One, all the postgraduate courses seats (MD; MS; and Diplomas) were reserved for PCMS doctors and fresh graduates were debarred from the admission process; two, the government put an embargo on recruitment of doctors for PCMS and banned ad hoc recruitments. Regular PCMS posts were not advertised. This meant we all were going to be without jobs once we finished our house jobs in January 1981. There were two other pending demands, stipend for PG students and conversion of all house jobs (seasonal and short PGs) into paid house jobs. We were approaching the final month of our house job. I knew once our house jobs were over, we would lose control of the hospital. You remember the saying, there only two surgeons Civil Surgeons and House Surgeons. This would have compromised our capacity to twist the tale of the authorities and force them to accept our demands. It meant our deadline was December 31, 1980, and we had to accomplish our task before the year end. Some of us met and decided to go on a two-day strike on December 1 and 2 to press the government to fulfill our demands. The news appeared in the newspapers also.
I recall, on 30th November when I was coming out of West surgical ward a short heighted Sikh gentleman who was wearing dark colored glasses approached me. He introduced himself as an officer from Intelligence Bureau (IB) and said he wanted a word with me. We were used to being followed by State CID but probably it was my first encounter with an IB official. He had a full dossier on me and knew about all my connections. We had a prolonged discussion, and I explained to him our demands and their rationale. I downplayed our preparations and chances of the success of our agitation. I recall during the entire course of our strike we were under intense surveillance by CID and IB officials.
We began our strike on the first day of December by locking the door of OPD complex of GND Hospital which continued till the next day. Luckily, we got support from both our senior and junior batches, and we decided to shift our camp to SGTB Hospital and started relay hunger strike. The hospital working was almost at a standstill, only emergencies were being attended. As the momentum built, we held a big rally in which all sections of health employees participated. This included medical teachers, PCMS doctors, nurses, pharmacists, ANMs and LHVs and BHWs. We went to GMC Patiala and Junior Doctors joined the strike in Patiala and Jalandhar. We made tactful use of the press, and I must thank S. Dalbir Singh of Tribune, Kamlesh ji and Sh. R K Soni (Hindi Press). S Harbir Singh of Akali Patrika, and Daily Ajit the news reporters of yester years, who helped us create pressure on the government. The joint rally was the last straw and Secretary health was sent to Amritsar to hold talks with us.
It was probably on 13th December that the Secretary health called us for a meeting In local Circuit House. It was decided that I will pursue hardline, and Rosy (Ravinder Pradeep) will play the good boy. Secretary health was also not a novice, he also pursued a hardline while the then DRME was trying to persuaded us to withdraw the strike. The discussions lasted for almost an hour and then there was a stalemate. We walked out of the meeting shouting slogans. A large number of doctors were waiting outside, they were furious when I announced that ‘talks have failed’.
Next day The Tribune carried a box item on the center of its first page, “Talks with Junior Doctors fail”. It further said doctors were planning to intensify their struggle. I was having breakfast at my place when Principal Dr. K S Sachdeva walked into my house and told me to get ready immediately as Secretary Health wanted to see me. I went to college and about 10 of us came to Circuit House. The Secretary told us that the government has accepted three of our demands and regarding PG stipend will be favorably considered. But we insisted on all the four demands being accepted. After a prolonged argument the stipend for PGs in basic departments was approved with immediate effect. I requested the Secretary Health to issue a press release. He told me to make the announcement and said, “I am a civil servant and I stand committed to fulfill them in a fortnight”. I must confess he implemented all the commitments within the agreed time frame.
Forty percent of PG seats were reserved for fresh graduates and almost 30 to 40 of our classmates got admission in PG courses. The government issued our appointment letters as Medical Officers (on short term basis) and by mid-February we were working as medical officers. There were only 90 paid house jobs in the college. Almost 30 seasonal and short PGs were converted into paid seats. So the number of paid house jobs rose to 120. PG students in the basic departments began getting stipends in June 1981. We made a compromise on last demand and PG students of clinical departments were not happy. We would not have compromised on this demand if we knew what had transpired in the morning. I learnt it much later probably after a couple of years.
On that morning when Chief Minister read the box item news on the front page of The Tribune which was titled “Talks with Junior Doctors fail” he was furious. He called Secretary Health and asked him to talk with junior Doctors again and ensure that strike ended immediately and do whatever it takes to end the strike. The State Education Minister S. Harcharan Singh Ajnala was on standby in the adjoining room in case of the stalemate. The moment we left the Secretary of Health went to the Minister’s room and congratulated him. There were celebrations in the room and CM was informed about it. This was told to me by the then District Education Officer Amritsar who was sitting with the minister at that time. May be if we had insisted for a few minutes more the PG student stipend demand might have been accepted in entirety.
All in all it was a happy ending. We had pleaded our case strongly and successfully created a narrative that we were being choked by being denied admission in PG courses and stopping recruitment of doctors in PCMS. We were being forced into the private sector while rural areas were short of doctors. We probably left the government with no choice but to accept our demands.
Dinesh Kumar Sharma
