Not just flower showers, nurses want to be on rolls

Another International Nurses Day has gone by, without nurses getting any redressal of their problems.

May 12 is observed as International Nurses Day all over the globe as a mark of respect to Florence Nightingale on her birth anniversary. This year is her 200th anniversary, which the World Health Organisation has designated as the Year for the Nurse and Midwife.

During the Covid-19 crisis, honouring nurses is particularly apt. Together with other medical personnel, they are on the frontline of the battle against the Coronavirus pandemic, putting their lives at risk while treating highly infectious patients. Yet, they are not honoured for the work they do and, in the current crisis, they are even discriminated against by people who fear contracting the disease from them.

A staff nurse working at Gandhi Hospital, which is a Covid-19 designated hospital, speaking to Deccan Chronicle, said the government should place nurses on the regular pay roll rather than showering flowers from helicopters or clapping for them. Most nurses in government hospitals work on contract. Their average wage is `8,000 to `12,000 a month, going up to

`20,000-`25,000 for senior positions. At the district level the pay is a mere `5,000.

There are around

80,000 nurses in the state, and 95 per cent of them are not paid even this prescribed wage, says working general secretary of the Nursing Officers Association of Telangana, Laxman Rudavath.

According to the association, in 2011 the Trained Nurses’ Association of India filed a case in the Supreme Court of `20,000 in hospitals with less than 50 beds. On January 29,

2016, the Supreme Court ordered the Centre to form a committee to look into this matter.

The Dr Jagadish Prasad committee set out its recommendations and guidelines on improving the wages and working conditions of private hospital nurses across the country to be on par with those working in government hospitals.

J.P. Nadda, the then health minister, then said: “Health is the responsibility of the state; it’s a state subject. We have framed the guidelines and sent it to all the concerned states. Any political party ruling a state and a Union Territory have to implement these guidelines for the welfare of the nurses.”

Karnataka and Kerala are the only states that have implemented the guidelines. Kanaka Durga Erra, a staff nurse working in Gandhi Hospital for 13 years, while speaking with Deccan Chronicle, appealed to the government: “I am working as an out-sourced contract worker, getting a take home salary of `15,000.”

“We want nurses to be taken on rolls, and pay those working in private hospitals according to the government norms, not just showering flower petals from helicopters or clapping for us all over India,” she said.

● THERE ARE around

80,000 nurses in the state, and 95 per cent of them are not paid even the prescribed wage, says working general secretary of the Nursing Officers Association of Telangana, Laxman Rudavath.

● DURING THE Covid19 crisis, honouring nurses is particularly apt. But they need regular pay.