The Story of Plea and Protest

Photos: Star File

“I cannot bear it anymore. I had to stay in the open street for ten days to take part in the protest. With meagre food, no sleep and no security I was feeling absolutely helpless. Today, I heard my two-year-old son crying over phone. He told me, “Mom come back, you do not need any job.” I felt like my heart was torn apart. How could I make him understand that I had to wait 10 years for this job and only with an unjust decision all my dreams got shattered? Without this job, how could I feed my son?” says Hena Khanam, a nurse from Panchagar, who came to Dhaka from the northern end of Bangladesh to take part in the protest.

Hena, after being severely injured by indiscriminate baton charge, is now lying on the floor of the Dhaka Medical College, groaning in agonising pain. However, some of her colleagues faced the worst consequences when police, with the aid of ruling party workers from Chhatra League and Shwechha Shebok League, descended on them with batons and boiling water from the water cannon.

According to Rina Akter, President of the Unemployed Nurses' Association, Salma, a protestor who was three months pregnant, was kicked on her abdomen and she started to bleed. Eventually, she had a miscarriage. Two of the protesting nurses were also arrested and a case has been filed against '1400 unidentified nurses' – demonstrators for "preventing the law enforcers from carrying out their duties." The five-month-long movement of the nurses, to ensure their jobs, was brutally subdued without paying any heed to their demands.

Agitation among the nurses started to grow when Public Service Commission (PSC) decided take competitive exams to recruit 3,728 nurses for government hospitals. Earlier, nurses were recruited according to their year of graduation, merit and work experience. “I and many of my colleagues have been waiting for years to reach the seniority level with the experience and quality required by government hospitals. All our efforts went in vain with this decision,” says Nahida Akhter, secretary general of Bangladesh Basic Graduate Nurses Society.

“Now, we have to sit for the exams with the nurses who graduated just a year earlier. This will create immense competition for the positions which should be rightfully ours,” she adds in desperation.

Intellectuals and human rights activists also expressed their sympathy to the protest. When the nurses first started their sit-in in front of the National Press Club, Syed Abul Maksud, a human rights activist and leader, visited the protest and expressed his unity with the demonstration. He said, “Healthcare cannot be ensured with only medicine and doctors. Service of qualified nurses is essential in this regard.”

“It is a shame that these well trained nurses have taken to the streets in thousands for a simple job when there is a severe crisis of well trained nurses in the government hospitals,” he adds. In fact, at present 13, 728 posts for the 'senior nurse' are vacant in government hospitals. And, around 21,000 jobless nurses have been protesting for almost six months to get employed according to seniority, merit and experience.

At one point during the movement, agitated nurses blocked Shahbagh intersection of the capital, from where police evicted them by headlong assault with tear gas, sound grenades along with baton charge and water cannon. On May 25, the desperate nurses organised a road march to the Prime Minister's Office to convey their demand, however, police again foiled their procession. Although Health Minister Mohammad Nasim promised the nurses that their demands would be accepted, he took a u-turn later saying, “PSC is not under the health ministry. I can do nothing in this regard.”

At present, the fate of thousands of jobless nurses is still hanging on a thread.  Showing utter indifference, the government is neither taking any exam nor has it assured any provision for these jobless senior nurses, resulting in dilapidated healthcare condition in the government hospitals. The Government must take immediate steps to ensure jobs for these protesting nurses and make a comprehensive plan for their recruitment without depriving any of them of their right to serve the nation.