A long-standing demand of male nurses for 35 per cent reservation remains a distant dream with the Indus-trial Relations Committee (IRC) that went into the Balaraman panel report expressing its helplessness, citing lack of powers to entertain the proposal.
Most of the private hospitals have stopped recruiting male nurses, saying the men were the main force behind the recent nurses’ strikes in hospitals.
According to Jasminsha M., president of United Nurses Association (UNA), the demand was raised at the meeting of the IRC last week, but official nominees in the panel maintained it was beyond its purview.
The contention was that it needed a policy decision by the state, backed by a legislation.
Following this, the UNA has decided to give a memorandum to the chief minister and the Opposition leader, besides the health minister and the labour minister on June 26, the day IRC meets next.
“If the government is not positive to the proposal, we will organise a march to the assembly before the current session ends, and may also move the high court,” Jasminsha told DC.
While 20,000 male nurses have been employed in Kerala, several times the number are waiting for jobs, he said. Estimates say the number of female nurses in the state comes to 3 lakh.
“While managements are refusing jobs to male nurses, they don’t have a problem giving admission to boys to nursing colleges attached to the same hospitals,” he said.
He also did not subscribe to the view that male nurses were behind the recent unrest. “If so, what about the strike at Craft Hospital, Kodungalloor, where only female nurses are working? The strikes were in support of genuine demands and even the government had acknowledged it.”