NHM staff in Chandigarh not celebrating International Nurses Day, will wear black ribbons

The protest aims at highlighting the meagre salaries of ‘undervalued’ contractual nurses of the city’s National Health Mission

Feeling undermined and unworthy, the Chandigarh NHM Employees Union (CNEU), which comprises medical and paramedical staff, will not celebrate the International Nurses Day on May 12. They will also mark their protest by wearing black ribbons on May 13 to highlight the plight of nurses employed under National Health Mission, Chandigarh.

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“On Nurses Day, the staff will observe two minutes of silence and light candles in the memory of those who died for humanity, while serving in the Covid-19 epidemic. We hope their families will be paid the insurance provided by the Centre,” says the official statement.

On May 13, the union will protest to highlight the ‘exploitation of nurses’ by the government, said Amit Kumar, general secretary of CNEU. “The wages of contractual nurses under NHM are meagre as compared to those outsourced and the regular cadre who perform the same duties and have the same responsibilities,” he said.

He added that the Punjab government had hiked the salaries of Punjab NHM employees by 18%, but the Chandigarh NHM employees have had no annual increment for three years.

“A nurse under NHM draws just ₹9,000 to ₹11,000, while the outsourced cadre and regular employees draw ₹28,000 to ₹75,000 respectively. The protest aims at expressing resentment against the Union government and Chandigarh administration for undermining the worth of NHM nurses,” said the CNEU general secretary.

Amit Kumar also said the staff will observe a ‘black day’ by wearing black ribbons on May 13 during duty hours. “We won’t neglect duty. We will observe a protest against this discrimination with posters, videos, etc., and circulate it across all social media to make the public aware of the issue. We have informed Chandigarh administration and NHM about the agenda,” he said.