Over the decade, Nepali doctors, categorised as “foreign national residents” in India’s prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), have been deprived of stipends.

On June 26, Dr Indra Shekhar Prasad, the president of the Resident Doctors Association (RDA), and Raghunandan Dixit, general secretary of the RDA, wrote to the director of AIIMS and raised the issue of non-payment of stipends to the foreign national residents at AIIMS.

“This long-standing grievance demands immediate redressal and your decisive intervention,” the letter said. “The RDA has tirelessly advocated for the rights of these residents, who contribute to AIIMS's mission despite facing this glaring injustice.”

Most of the foreign students are from Nepal. Ekata Vyas, who campaigns on behalf of the Nepali students—estimated to number at least 60—told the Post that she is hoping for positive results this time. She has received positive feedback and responses from New Delhi and the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu. The monthly stipend ranges from IRs 90,000 to 1,20,000.

Besides taking up the matter, the foreign national doctors, mostly from Nepal, took up the issue before 2011. According to the Nepali doctors who are serving in AIIMS, a case was filed in the Delhi High Court against the discriminatory provision over the stipends and arrears in 2011. The Delhi Court gave its verdict in favour of the students on July 16. In 2013, however, the AIIMS filed a counter case which was made absolute on December 4, 2017, after 27 hearings, most of them just formalities marked by absences on the bench and of defendants.

A Nepali student said that since they did not have the time and resources to follow up on the case in court, it was dismissed. “Then, we started discussing the matter with government officials and diplomats,” said the student.

During the Nepal visit of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in 2018, then-prime minister KP Sharma Oli also took up the matter with the Indian delegation.

“Then we came to know that the India prime minister's office directed the Ministry of External Affairs to look into the matter and expedite its resolution. The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu also confirmed to India’s Ministry of External Affairs that Indian students in similar courses are getting stipends equal to their Nepali counterparts from their respective institutions in Nepal. In May 2018, India’s Ministry of External Affairs wrote to the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs to examine and expedite the prime minister’s directive.

Then, India’s health ministry wrote to AIIMS, the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JPIMER), and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, seeking the details of the foreign national residents.

“It is pertinent to note that esteemed institutions such as JIPMER and PGIMER have already rectified similar issues by ensuring stipend payments to their Foreign National Residents as early as 2020. AIIMS, renowned for its commitment to excellence and equity, cannot afford to lag behind in such matters of principle. As representatives of the RDA, we assert that the workload and dedication of Foreign National Residents are equivalent to their peers who receive stipends,” the RDA stated in its letter to the AIIMS director.

After two premier health institutions started providing the stipends in April 2020, the Resident Doctors Association of AIIMS wrote to the Prime Minister's Office in India seeking its intervention and solidarity with the foreign national residents who have been deprived of the stipends for the past decade.

Again in May of the same year, the AIIMS association wrote to the AIIMS director to recognise the efforts by foreign national residents during the pandemic and consider resuming the stipend, but the request went unheard.

In January 2023, the AIIMS issued a public notice stating that the government of Nepal should sponsor these students.

Nepal’s foreign ministry then clarified that the Nepali students had competed openly and were selected on merit with no sponsorship or role of the government of Nepal. It directed the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi to look into the matter.

“We took up the issue with prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and urged him to raise the matter while meeting with Modi,” said the Nepali doctors. “In September, 2023, the Supreme Court of India issued a verdict in a similar case stating that nonpayment of stipend cannot be justified.”

Arguing that it is equivalent to bonded labour, the verdict directed the Medical Council to take note of instances in which the stipend is not paid.

The Indian government informed the Supreme Court of India that, as per its directive, action will be taken to ensure that there is parity in medical education. “We again wrote to the foreign minister of Nepal, the Nepali Embassy, and the Indian Embassy to discuss the matter during the bilateral commission meeting scheduled for the first week of January 2024,” a Nepali doctor said.

Both foreign minister NP Saud and Nepal’s ambassador Shankar Sharma took up the matter during the seventh joint commission meeting held in Kathmandu, according to the students.

Then, several meetings were held, correspondence was made by the resident doctors of AIIMS, and Nepali students submitted applications to the health minister of India, people informed on the matter said.

"RDA asserts that the workload and dedication of foreign national residents are equivalent to their peers who receive stipends," said RDA President Dr Inder Shekhar Prasad. "Denial of their stipends not only undermines their morale but also tarnishes AIIMS's reputation as a beacon of medical education and equality."

The Nepali doctors said that since India has come up with a new budget, they hope their long struggle for getting stipends will be resolved.