The Modi Government is on a spree of mass retrenchments of health workers employed in national capital’s government hospitals. On 1 April more than 150 pandemic frontline workers (whom the Government likes to call ‘Corona warriors’) from Lady Hardinge Medical College and hospital (LHMC), were retrenched without citing any reason. The Modi regime had, in 2020, asked people to shower petals on ‘Corona warriors’ as a mark of respect – and it is clear now that the petals were meant to stand in for actual respect, dignity, pay and permanent jobs. The health and sanitation workers are now out of a job, and since then have been in a sit-in protest near the hospital gates braving police intimidation. This happened in spite of an Assistant Labour Commissioner’s order in their favour stating that the ‘condition of services will not be changed’. The hospital administration refused to comply with the ALC order. Such refusal is illegal. 

The same day employees of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur College of Nursing were retrenched too. Many hospitals and other institutions in the national capital are facing a real threat of imminent retrenchment. Only very few among them could dare to even register their nominal protest, since their precarity makes them vulnerable to intimidation.

The LHMC employees faced police repression on second day of their dharna at hospital gates when they had to spend a day inside the Mandir Marg police station after they were picked up forcibly by the police along with their leader comrade Surya Prakash, Delhi state secretary of AICCTU. But the workers are determined to fight for their jobs and still continuing protest after so may weeks.

These health workers had helped save thousands of lives during the deadly pandemic days through operating and serving on crucial hospital services like ventilators and ICUs risking their own lives.

An informal notice of retrenchment has recently been served to nearly 300 sanitation workers in Kalawati Saran Hospital. They are all contract workers who enjoy no legal protection under Modi government’s new labour regime. Moreover, they are being deprived of their democratic right to hold peaceful protests in face of threats and intimidations by the police and hospital administration.

These workers, who are contracted through Sulabh International by the hospital, are now doing their hospital duties wearing black bands on their mouths as a mark of expression of their resentment against the retrenchment order. They have no clue as to what is in stock for them in future or how they will support families after losing their jobs. This is one example of extremely atrocious and exploitative labour relations which have been shaped under Modi regime. Swachh Bharat Mission is just another ‘jumla’ (empty rhetoric) which has nothing to do with welfare of patients during pandemic, cleanliness in hospitals or job security of sanitation workers.

The All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) is fighting for thousands of such contract workers in many government hospitals in Delhi for last many months. 53 contract sanitation workers in Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital in Narela held a militant protest against the termination of their contract without any notice. These protesters criticized the hypocrisy of the governments by displaying their ‘Covid Warrior’ certificates in hands issued by the administration during the protest. Here their protest came to some fruition as the contracts of them got renewed after the protest, although their demand of permanent jobs remains neglected. 

Many contract health workers have also been retrenched after 12 to 16 years of their services in Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital who are protesting for last many days. The Central Government had promised to make permanent all the contract workers in all the hospitals in the country who have completed 100 days of Covid duty. But now, when Covid pressure has decreased somewhat, they are not even been kept on temporary, casual or contract basis.

Most of these contract workers themselves got infected by Covid during their work among pandemic, now they are forced to fight for their employment which in most cases is still underpaid and devoid of social security benefits. Those who saved lives are now being threatened of their livelihoods. While some hospital administrations are citing lack of funds as reason for their retrenchments, at many places they are simply being retrenched because their contractor agencies intend to employ newer and more cheaper workers in place of older employees. This is a prevalent form of labour exploitation under the contractorisation system where grievance redressal mechanisms are near absent, and administrative and police machinery always takes the side of the contractors. This is open secrete that contractors have to share their booty with those in power, hence the contract labour system thrives through extreme levels of corruption where quality of services under contract are always dismal.

All hospitals in Delhi are highly under staffed then why such retrenchments? AICCTU leader Abhishek says such hospitals are lifeline for Delhi’s poor to lower middle class sections, but at the same time deliberate creation of bad or inefficient hospital services will logically result in bigger traffic towards highly expensive private hospitals. In a way these exploitative measures make a conducive atmosphere in favour of privatisation of health services which is Modi government’s priority agenda. This is also a reason behind the release of insufficient funds, while it is not ‘denied’ openly. There are lakhs of posts lying vacant in government hospitals all over the country of medical and paramedical staff without any intention of filling them in near future. Moreover, India is among very few nations who spent almost negligible extra funds to cope with the pandemic during last couple of years. The public health expenditure in the country as a percentage of GDP is one of the lowest in the world  and the allocation for health in the Rs 20-lakh-crore stimulus package to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic announced by the Modi government on May 12, 2020, was grossly insufficient and amounts to 0.008% of the country’s gross domestic product GDP. The government has not expressed any intention to safeguard the jobs of Corona warriors or increase expenditure in health sector till today.

Interestingly, the workers retrenched in RML hospital were employed on contract against permanent posts and in most likelihood they would have been made permanent against these vacancies. But even these permanent posts are now withdrawn. Not long ago, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed in Rajya Sabha in reply to CPI leader Binoy Viswam’s query that 51,061 posts vacant for doctors, nurses, health workers and other health professionals across all states and Union territories. We can not say what will be the fate of these vacancies.

During all India general strike on 29 March hundreds of these health workers joined ranks of struggling working classes at Jantar Mantar raising their demands. On 11 April LHMC workers held a candle light vigil which was joined by people across various social strata including students and youth in solidarity.

These illegal retrenchments are being done at the behest of central government directives and policies, in open violation of orders and directives of labour department as well as that of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). Abhishek said lakhs of such health workers in India deserve solidarity and support from all sections of people as the success of their struggles is going to benefit general masses much more than their own livelihoods and families in the form of much better public health services. Till then health workers are determined to intensify their battle against the Modi government.