Male nurses are urging the Centre to revoke a 2019 decision of the Central Institute Body of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to reserve 80 per cent nursing posts for female nurses.

However, female nurses are tacitly supporting the provision saying it is welcome given the nature of the job.

As the CIB is scheduled to meet on June 15, the AIIMS Nurses Union has approached the Centre that gender based reservation should be revoked. “The CIB said in its decision that the appropriateness and requirement of female nursing staff in specialised wards is for the comfort and care of the patients. Nurses are trained medical professionals. Their roles should be defined scientifically,” general secretary of the union Fameer CK told BusinessLine .

’Óthers may follow’

Fameer said the 80 per cent reservation of posts for female nurses has been implemented in the nursing officer recruitment process of various AllMS and many other institutes. He feared that other Government and private hospitals may also take similar decisions soon.

In a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Fameer and president of the Union Harish Kumar Kajila said they had conveyed their strong dissent against the “arbitrary and irrational” policy but all their requests fell on deaf ears. “It is crystal clear that this messy recruitment policy has impacted the morale of the staff. The global demand for Indian nurses have increased dramatically and the number of Indian nurses opting for transnational career is skyrocketing,” they said in the letter.

They said such an unjust gender-based policy is not being followed anywhere at the international level. “During this Covid pandemic, we all realised that providing quality nursing care is vital irrespective of the gender of the care provider,” and urged the Centre to revoke the decision in the next meeting. Nurses unions in several States have complained against the decision of AIIMS CIB.

The reservation is however, welcomed by female nurses. “Unemployment scenario is equal for men and women. In the field of nursing, women have played a much larger and important role. What is wrong in earmarking 80 per cent nursing jobs for female nurses? It would definitely improve the quality of our healthcare system. Other hospitals should also follow the AIIMS model,” a senior female nurse in a Central Government hospital, who wished to remain anonymous, said. She claimed that most of the nurses have welcomed the one-year-old order and even several courts did not entertain the complaints against it.

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