Shillong, Apr 11: The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC), which is spearheading a protest against job reservation system in NEIGRIHMS, has urged the Centre to implement 80:20 ratio of female-male nurses in the premier hospital in keeping with AIIMS, New Delhi.
The organisation, in a letter addressed to union health & family welfare minister JP Nadda, said, “We humbly urge you to kindly issue necessary direction to accord approval by the Ministry to NEIGRIHMS to implement the provision of 80:20 female : male nurses as adopted by …AIIMS, New Delhi as well as other institutes under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.”
The HYC letter was issued following the controversy over a job advertisement issued by North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institutes of Health & Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) on 22 January 2025.
The advertisement that called for filling up 105 posts of nursing officers did not specify the ratio of female-male nurses, according to the HYC.
We fear that this will lead to more number of male nurses being appointed in the institute as was evident during the last two recruitment processes,” stated HYC president Roykupar Synrem in the letter to Nadda.
Earlier, Synrem said, NEIGRIHMS had written to ministry on 9 July 2024 seeking approval to implement the provision of 80:20 female-male nurses at the hospital.
According to HYC, besides AIIMS New Delhi other Institutes or government undertaking such as ESIC Hospital, JIPMER, 80% of the posts of Nursing Officers are reserved for female candidates.
However, the ministry vide letter dated 08-08-2024 had replied that “NEIGRIHMS may be advised not to adopt provision of 80:20 (Female: Male) nurses as adopted by AIIMS, NEW Delhi”.
“This advice of the Ministry not only affects the administration of NEIGRIHMS but also affects the sentiment of the patients seeking medical assistance in the Institute,” he stated.
According to him, NEIGRIHMS has around 40 different departments/areas where Nursing Officers are being posted and only 3 of these departments are male wards.
Further, Synrem pointed out that female patients in wards like PICU/ICU are not comfortable with male nurses attending to their child or to breastfeed their child in the presence of male nurses.
Referring to apprehensions of male nurses in providing nursing care to female patients or leaving a female child or patient in closed rooms with only the male nurses, he said, “It is necessary that maximum number of female nurses be appointed for patients by adopting the 80:20 ratio.”
Meanwhile, the HYC has submitted a memorandum to the Meghalaya gvernor CH Vijayashankar requesting his intervention into the matter.
