Chennai: From certificates being snatched away to living in cramped quarters on a paltry income, the life of a nurse in a private hospital here is a far cry from his or her peers abroad. Over the years, many have emigrated, a few are on their way out. Others continue helping heal in the shadow of their tribulations.

Some of these nurses were present in a meeting held in the city on Thursday to share their ordeal. “Some of us here work for as less as Rs 3,000 a month,” said V Baby Shalini, Secretary of Nurses Joint Action Committee, which represents 1,000 nurses in the state.

The average salary for a government staff nurse in Tamil Nadu is Rs 33,045, said Shalini. There are around 2.05 lakh nurses in Tamil Nadu, of which 60% work in the private sector.

In January 2016, the Supreme Court asked the Union health ministry to set up a committee to study the pay and working conditions of nurses in private hospitals. The committee recommended that the salary given to nurses in private hospitals should not be less than Rs 20,000 a month.

The Centre later wrote to the health secretaries of all states to formulate a legislation or guidelines to implement the recommendations of the committee. “But a year on, nothing has been done,” said K Boominathan, president of Nurses Joint Action Committee. “All we are asking is to be paid on par with nurses in the government sector,” he said, adding that the workforce also needed a monitoring body to enforce this.

Nurses present at the meeting also said many had of their peers also face difficulties in finding a job as private hospitals are increasingly recruiting poorly qualified staff so they could be paid lesser. “Or they start their own nursing schools and recruit only from there,” said Boominathan. Nurses also complained of facing harassment by private hospitals and being forced to work overtime. “We need a conducive place to work, a safe place to stay and a stable future. The government needs to set up a mechanism for this,” said Shalini.

