Foreign medical graduates in Rajasthan to protest on 16 September over unpaid internship stipends

Foreign medical graduates doing their compulsory rotating internship in Rajasthan will protest at 9 am on 16 September outside the Directorate of Medical Education at Chikitsa Shiksha Bhawan, Govind Marg, Adarsh Nagar, Jaipur. Their case is one line long: same work, same responsibility, same stipend.

The dispute

FMG interns (Indian students who took their MBBS abroad, cleared the screening examination and returned to complete a mandatory internship in an Indian hospital) say they are rostered into the same duties as their domestically trained colleagues but are not paid the stipend those colleagues receive. The group says it has raised the matter with the state government, the chief minister's office, the health minister and the state medical council, and is being backed by a national federation of resident doctors' associations.

Why it keeps recurring

This is not only a Rajasthan argument. Internship stipends for returning foreign medical graduates are set state by state, and several states have historically paid FMG interns less than their own graduates, or nothing at all, on the reasoning that the intern is completing a qualification requirement rather than holding a post. The counter-argument is the ward roster: an intern who takes night duties, runs admissions and writes case notes is doing clinical labour whoever issued the degree.

What this means if you are studying medicine abroad

The internship is not a formality at the end of the route. It is a year of full-time hospital work whose pay depends entirely on which state you do it in. If you are weighing an MBBS abroad, add two questions to your research: what does the state where you intend to intern currently pay FMG interns, and how many internship seats does it sanction for them. Both numbers move, and both are worth confirming from the state directorate of medical education rather than from a consultant.

CareerBox News Desk, reporting on the announced protest by foreign medical graduate interns before the Directorate of Medical Education, Rajasthan, over internship stipend parity. Official portal: rajswasthya.nic.in. Dates and eligibility change; confirm them on the official portal before you act.