Supreme Court ruling upholding government decision; exploitation in nursing field coming to an end

Nursing is one of the first sectors to open Kerala's way to foreign countries. Those who passed nursing courses from Kerala had gone to Germany and other foreign countries in search of work even in the mid-sixties. Later, in almost all parts of the world, nurses from Kerala proved their excellence in the field of emergency care and this led to special treatment and preference for those from Kerala in this field. The School of Nursing was established in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala in 1963. Today, private hospitals along with government medical colleges are conducting nursing courses in many districts of Kerala.

Nursing is a health field with more than two hundred specialities. One can get training in a particular category in this. This often leads to higher salaries and increased demand for expert services. No matter what a person's interest in nursing is, they can find a speciality that interests them. Increased employment opportunities in both foreign and domestic hospitals have led to increased acceptance of this course. However, low wages for nurses in the private sector in India continue to be a problem. There have been many protests in this regard. Many of the protests were due to the fact that nurses in private hospitals work long hours while earning relatively low salaries.

In all these protests, one of the demands that they kept repeating was to do away with one year of compulsory training after nursing studies in Kerala. There was a condition that those completing nursing courses run by private hospitals should undergo one year of training in their hospital. In 2011, the state government decided to do away with one year of compulsory training because it was felt that it was unfair that those who had completed their studies had to work for a year for meagre wages. The Supreme Court has upheld the Kerala government's decision to reject the Kerala Private Hospitals Association's petition against this.

The bench chaired by Justice BR Gavai stated that as there is a six-month internship in the four-year course there is no need for another year of training. This is a verdict that brings great relief to students pursuing nursing studies in private medical institutions. Nursing studies used to last for five years in total due to the condition that one can work only after one year of training. This was a condition that heavily burdened those who studied by taking loans etc. During that one year, they could not apply for jobs anywhere else or seek overseas job opportunities. An apparent exploitation in the field of nursing has come to an end with the Supreme Court ruling.