NEW DELHI: As there has been no reassuring response to their demands from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) administration, the paramedical students of the Optometry Students Association have publicly stated that they will start a relay-hunger strike on Thursday.
The students have been calling for justice for a deceased optometry first-year student, Abhishek Malviya, who had been allegedly denied an ambulance by the AIIMS as he was not a resident of the hostel. During the protest, the students also collected donation money from people in AIIMS campus to build a hostel for themselves.
Malviya arrived at AIIMS emergency after commuting for two to three hours. He was relocated to the hospital’s brand-new private unit where he was put on ECMO and his lungs began to collapse. He was later diagnosed with H1N1 (influenza).
“He had several lung illnesses, including bacterial, viral, and influenza infections, according to the doctors who declared him dead. He was using prosthetic lungs and was on ECMO,” AIIMS Optometry Students Association issued a statement.
“Nursing students get hostel accommodation from the very first day. But no hostel accommodation is being provided to any paramedical students from Optometry, MTR Radiography or Operation Theatre,” said a student. The students are demanding a hostel for them as they claim that the nearby areas around the institute are expensive and they have to live in faraway places.
“We get only `14,000 as stipend. Finding a house in the areas around AIIMS is impossible”, said a student.
The students have claimed that hostel superintendent Dr Sandip Aggarwal threatened them saying, “Leave your course or die. Do whatever you want to do. You won’t get a hostel.”