Praveen alleges that he has been diligently paying close to 1 to 1.5 lakh rupees fees to his college for three years now. Each time the college puts up an exam date, he says he immediately pays the additional exam fee. He claims he has already paid the fee thrice but has yet to sit for a single exam.
The Probe’s Bhaswati Sengupta speaks to Praveen Dubey, a nursing student from Maruti Institute Of Nursing, Madhya Pradesh. It’s been three years since Praveen started his nursing course, but he alleges that his college has not conducted a single examination, and he continues to be in his first year.
“Why are they collecting exam fees when they have no intention of conducting the exams? When I was admitted, I was just 20 years old; today, I am 23. I will soon turn 24. So far, I have not even written my first-year exams. It is a four-year course. So, will the medical university take 12 years to complete our course? There is no faculty in the college. There are no registered teachers to teach the BSc course. Our seniors teach us. There’s no Principal. My younger brother and sister have finished their engineering, and I feel so bad that I have not even given my first-year exams,” rues Praveen.
Sadly, this is not a lone case. Thousands of nursing students across the country have been facing similar problems. The Probe spoke to Shiv Singh Dangi, a nursing student at the Roshan Hospital College of Nursing in Bhopal. Shiv’s fate is not too different from Praveen’s.
A visibly upset Shiv told us, “For the last three years, I have been studying in this college, and I have not been able to give my exams. I was admitted into the college in 2020. This college is part of the Madhya Pradesh Medical Science University. Our college should have gotten its letter of affiliation from the University in 2020, but it did not. Despite that, they admitted students and started collecting fees from them”.
Another student Rajesh studying in the same college told The Probe that he hails from a low-income family. His family can no longer bear the burden of his education. “I am a farmer’s son. I have not even given my first-year nursing exam for three and a half years. I don’t know why the college is dilly-dallying on the subject and the university is not helping the students either. The students are in a tight spot. My education has become a liability to my poor parents.”
Reports suggest that Shiv and Rajesh’s institute Roshan Hospital College of Nursing, did not get its papers through and ran into trouble with the Madhya Pradesh Medical Science University, Jabalpur. The university is the governing body for all the medical, dental, paramedical, ayurveda, homoeopathic, unani and yoga colleges in Madhya Pradesh and has approximately 300 colleges under it with a yearly intake of close to 80,000 students across the state.
Students like Poonam had extended their services to the state during Covid-19, and they say they feel let down by the system. “We completely feel unheard. We had done Covid-19 duties as well. We are today struggling hard to pay our room rent. The college has been collecting fees from us even when they cannot make us write the exams. We have financial problems. We are mentally disturbed. The last time when we protested, they beat us up. They lathi-charged us. We have written to the Chief Minister but have not received any replies so far.”
Another nursing student, Aakanksha Malviya from the SR College of Nursing in Gwalior states that several students in her college had not given their exams for the last three years and therefore continue to remain in the first year. She adds that many students are emotionally vulnerable today, and some are in a suicidal state.
But this is more than just a problem limited to Madhya Pradesh alone. The Probe spoke to Komal, a Florence Nightingale Training College of Nursing student in GTB Hospital in Delhi. Komal says nursing students face many issues while training in hospitals. “There are not many clear guidelines and policies regarding nursing internships or training. We don’t get trained properly in hospitals. They feel it is okay for us to know less. They say you are just getting trained, so there is no need to get into the details.”
Anjali Gulia, another student from the same institute, states that students often don’t get their stipends. “We don’t have permanent teachers, and sometimes we have one teacher who comes and teaches a concept and then suddenly another teacher comes for the same subject. There is no continuity in education. We have been attending classes, and we have also been doing our nursing duties, but we have not been getting our stipends. The government is not doing anything about it”.
Indian Nursing Council, which is the national regulatory body for nurses and nursing education in the country, is still functioning under the outdated Nursing Council Act 1947. The Supreme Court in 2017 ruled that the Indian Nursing Council (INC) should not have the power to grant recognition to nursing colleges. Time and again, the INC has drawn flak for corrupt practices and for not coming to the aid of nursing students whom colleges have defrauded. The INC top officials were not available for a comment on the subject when approached by The Probe.
The All India Government Nursing Federation (AIGNF) has often written to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to improve the standard of nursing education in the country, including the setting up of learn and earn schemes in nursing education and enhancement of stipends for student nurses. During budget 2023, the government announced 157 new nursing colleges, but public health experts say that while new colleges are being opened, the government should ensure that the existing colleges are run as per government guidelines.
A study published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatric Nursing found that during the pandemic Indian nurses faced many mental health issues, including fear and anxiety, depression, fatigue and insomnia. Devendra Jain, General Secretary, Nurses Association of Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (GIPMER), New Delhi, notes that nursing education definitely needs a complete revamp. However, once these students finish their education, their careers look very grim as nurses’ living and working conditions in the country are deplorable.