FARIDKOT, June 3: More than 400 medical students, including interns and residents of Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital (GGSMCH), staged a peaceful rally Tuesday protesting rising tuition fees and unchanged intern stipends, calling the financial pressure “blatant injustice.”
The demonstration, led by the 2020 MBBS batch now serving as interns, began at the college gate and proceeded to the GGS Hospital emergency wing. Students held placards and chanted slogans such as “High Fees, Low Stipend” and “We Are Doctors, Not Labourers.”
“The protest is a call for justice. We are committed to serving the nation, but we also deserve fair treatment,” said one of the interns.
Protesters said the annual MBBS tuition has more than doubled from ₹80,000 to ₹1.8 lakh, while the monthly intern stipend remains fixed at ₹15,000 — just ₹500 a day — despite long working hours.
They compared the figures with those in Chandigarh, Haryana and Delhi, where stipends average ₹30,000 and total course fees hover around ₹2.5 lakh for the entire program.
“This fee-stipend imbalance is unfair and unsustainable,” another student added, pointing out that the financial stress affects both learning and living conditions for many students.
While the rally remained peaceful and disciplined, students urged urgent intervention from the authorities to reassess and restructure the current financial policies governing medical education.
Officials at Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, under which GGSMCH operates, responded that the stipends and fees are determined by the Punjab state government, not the university.
