Haryana’s MBBS bond policy a constant source of fear and stress for students

NEW DELHI: Shweta*, a third-year student at Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, fears she might be stuck paying off two loans once she graduates.

“I have a scholarship from a non-profit which provides me Rs 60,000 per year. This is like a loan that I have to pay back once I get the job, the only good thing is that there is no interest. Even then, some semesters I struggle to pay the rest of the fees as my father is a carpenter and sometimes we don’t have enough. Then we borrow from others,” she said.

Once she graduates, she will have to either find a government job within Haryana or a postgraduate medical seat – both extremely challenging. If she doesn’t, she will have to take another loan, this time of Rs 25 lakh, to pay off a bond for not serving the state, even if there was no job post vacant.

Most states enforce a mandatory rural service for MBBS graduates who have studied in highly-subsidised government colleges. Students sign a bond at the time of admission and if they don’t fulfil its terms, they are fined, sometimes as much as Rs 30 lakh. While this “bond policy” is common, the “service incentive bond” in Haryana is different.

Unlike in other states, Haryana has introduced a complicated “tripartite agreement” between the student, government and a bank – the private IDBI bank is the main one. A loan of around Rs 25 lakh will be issued to the student the moment they finish their internship.

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This “collateral-free education loan”, which has an accruing interest, will have to be paid back after a moratorium of one year. If the student joins government service or postgraduate studies, the government will take care of this payment for that period. If not, the burden of the loan falls on students.

“The government is trying to get doctors for itself because the vacancies in the government sector are very high. Recently, about two years back, they recruited doctors. Although all the vacant posts were filled then, now nearly one third of posts are vacant again. Government is trying to make sure that doctors are around for five years,” said Ajay Mahajan, state president of Indian Medical Association (IMA) Haryana.

But it’s having the opposite effect, deterring the brightest students from joining its medical colleges. Medical students from even within Haryana prefer studying elsewhere. The ones already enrolled are scrambling for postgraduate seats amidst uncertainty around government jobs.

MBBS Bond: Student protests, aftermath

In November 2020, the Haryana government had notified that students will have to either pay Rs 10 lakh per year upfront or sign a tripartite agreement for a Rs 40 lakh loan they will have to pay back if they don’t take up the government job. The agreement mandated service in rural posts for seven years without guaranteeing there will be jobs.

After medical students took to the streets in late 2022, the government reduced the bond amount to around Rs 25 lakh for male and Rs 19 lakh for female students. The number of years was reduced to five and the years of PG studies were made to count toward mandatory service.

With the updated terms, if the student opts for a government job or a postgraduate degree, the loan amount with interest will be repaid by the government. This holds true even if the student gets a private job that pays less than a government medical officer’s salary. However, if the student does not get a job, not a postgraduate medical seat, the burden of repaying the loan will fall on the student. Students from NRI quota are excused.

Students had demanded that banks be removed from the equation but this aspect of the policy was retained. Government college students from 2020-21 batch onwards and semi-government college students from 2022-23 batch onwards are under this new policy.

Haryana MBBS Bond: Not enough jobs

Students, meanwhile, are worried as they believe that the government will not have enough jobs to spare them from loan repayment.

“I’ve been studying here for the past four years. In all that time, only 1,200 medical officer posts were announced. Around 1,200 medical students graduate every year in Haryana, including those from private colleges. And the government is only releasing 1,200 seats once every four years. This is not proportionate. For those 1,200 seats, more than 8,400 students had applied,” said Akshat Mittal, a student at PGIMS, Rohtak.

Students also said that the government was unable to create any jobs for the 2017 batch which then had a bond policy of two years, similar to other states.

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“Since 2020 already four batches are in line. When the government is unable to provide jobs for a single batch,
how will they provide jobs for every incoming batch? They are also increasing medical colleges every year. So,
how are they going to accommodate so many doctors?” asked Mittal, also the president of the Indian Medical Association Medical Students Network (MSN) Haryana.

In February, then Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced that one medical college will be set up in each district of Haryana by 2030. Students said that while the government is announcing more and more medical colleges, it is making no effort to see if subsequent job vacancies are available to accommodate the graduates.

Bond for MBBS Admission: Two loans

Students from disadvantaged families dread the prospect of having to pay two loans — one to cover the college fees and another for the bond – if they are unable to land a medical seat or government post.

“Many of us have taken loans just to pay the fees since the tuition fees in Haryana are higher as compared to other states. So after the course, if we don’t get any postgraduate seats we will have to take up a private job. Then we will have to pay back both the loans,” said Niharika.

The tuition fee at PGIMS Rohtak comes to around Rs 80,000 per annum with a 10% increase each year. It was raised from Rs 50,000 in 2020 along with the introduction of the new bond policy.

Haryana Medical Colleges: Few PG seats

Postgraduate seats are also in short supply in Haryana. Only three government medical colleges have postgraduate seats. The majority of these are in PGIMS Rohtak (223). The other two, BPS Government Medical College for Women and SHKM Government Medical College Nalhar, have just 23 and 21, respectively.

Although students can still take seats in any college in the country, confusion is rife as the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET PG) is set to be replaced by the National Exit Test (NExT) from 2025.

“We will be writing the NExT exam instead of NEET PG. There is a lot of confusion about this exam because no one knows what the pattern will be. So, this adds to the worry of not getting seats,” said the student.

Students skipping Haryana

Medical professionals believe that the state’s efforts to ensure retention of doctors has had the opposite effect. With private loans in their names and a five-year service bond, students prefer to study in other states with a more straightforward bond policy.

According to a Times of India report in 2022, the top performers in NEET UG are not preferring Haryana medical colleges as compared to previous year. Even PGIMS Rohtak, had just one candidate among top 2000 rank compared to 27 in 2020. At the same time, more students are preferring private medical colleges, where there is no bond.

“It has negatively affected the medical system here. Because of the bond system, because of the loans, if some problem occurs and the government doesn’t pay, the student will have to pay. So, many of our meritorious students have moved out of the state. Students would rather study in a private institution where there is no bond,” said Mahajan.

*Name changed