MARGAO: The post-graduate students of Goa Dental College and Hospital, Bambolim, have submitted an application to the Health Department appealing for an increase in their stipend.
It may be noted that in December 2015, Health Department Undersecretary Sangeeta Porob wrote to the Dean of Goa Dental College asking for her comments on the student’s application along with a copy of the post-graduate stipend order, as per which the stipend is presently paid to them.
On February 25, 2016, Dr Anita Spadigam, Dean of Goa Dental College replied to the Health Department, stating that the request of the students may be considered favourably.
The dean listed various reasons, including that the students, as part of the course requirements, bear the cost of instruments, laptop, camera, procuring specific materials/conducting tests, attending PG conventions and conferences, publishing papers and printing posters and dissertation work.
In their application sent to the Health Department, the PG students stated that their monthly stipend of Rs 25,000 was inadequate.
“We would like to request an increase in the monthly post-graduate stipend on par with the Goa Medical College clinical post-graduate students,” read their application, which listed seven reasons, including a detailed list of payments to post-graduate dentistry students in government colleges across India. They used the list of payments to other government colleges to prove that they receive the lowest stipend compared to other government colleges.
They pointed out that all over India, the stipend of medical and dental post-graduate students were equal, but that was not the case in Goa, even though the number of patients treated was nearly the same. They also pointed out that there had been no increase in their stipend for the last three years, while the overall expenses had increased exponentially during the same period.
“All over India, post-graduate students are called ‘Academic Junior Residents’, while the BDS degree holders working in institutes under a 1-year contract are called ‘Non-Academic Junior Residents’. The pay scale of all junior residents is the same (academic as well as non-academic) all over India. However, this is not the case in Goa. Point to be noticed here, the stipend of Post-Graduate students is much lower than the pay scale of the Junior Resident,” read their application, which requested that steps be taken to do away with the disparity in the pay scale.
The application further noted that across India, there was an incremental increase in the monthly stipend of the dental post-graduate students, which was not seen in Goa. They added that the stipend of medical and dental interns was the same, while there was a discrepancy in the stipend of medical and dental post-graduate students.
