200 NUHM Doctors and Nurses Protest Outside Ripon Building Over Pending Salaries

Around 200 medical workers, including nurses and doctors employed under the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), staged a protest outside the Ripon Building in Chennai on Wednesday. The healthcare staff, who are posted at primary health centres run by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), gathered to demand the immediate payment of their pending salaries for the month.

The protesting workers revealed that many of them had not received their full pay. One nurse reported receiving a salary of just ₹22, while another received only ₹6,000 of her ₹18,000 monthly wage. Protesters expressed that managing a household on such drastically reduced amounts was impossible.

According to Chennai's city health officer, Dr M Jagadeesan, the salary shortfalls were caused by a new mobile application. This application directly links attendance records, logged between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., to salary disbursement. Dr Jagadeesan stated that the technical issue would be resolved within three days.

However, the protesting medical staff rejected this explanation. Julius, a doctor at one of the primary health centres, pointed out that workers had been marking their attendance as required but still did not receive their full wages despite doing so.

The protesters also highlighted broader grievances, stating that contractual workers are not treated on a par with permanent staff. One staff nurse shared that she did not receive any increments even after continuing to work on ambulance duty during the Covid-19 pandemic, during which she suffered an abortion in her fourth month.

The protest began around 8 a.m., and demonstrators were eventually asked to disperse by 3 p.m. Following the demonstration, GCC Commissioner Dr G S Sameeran announced that he had directed the city health officer to release the salaries based on physical attendance records for the month.

Dr Sameeran added that starting next month, the administration will reconcile biometric and physical attendance records to address any discrepancies before disbursing salaries.