HYDERABAD: K Rama Devi, a resident of Kothagudem, has been a nursing practitioner at a private hospital and is looking for a government job. Her joy knew no bounds when the Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare issued a notification on October 4, for filling vacancies in 17 posts in the district under the National Health Mission’s ‘Nurse Practitioner Midwifery Diploma Course.’
She was among the 31 candidates who were shortlisted out of 500 tribal applicants. The District Medial Health Officer had finalised their recruitment and all that they were waiting for was an interview with the District Collector, after which 17 candidates among them were to be given joining orders to get trained for 18 months and then serve in primary health centres in tribal areas. To their shock, the candidates came to know that the district administration had cancelled the notification and issued a fresh notification on October 29, making it a general notification for which non-tribals were also allowed to apply.
Application acceptance, scrutiny, certificate verification and interviews were conducted within a week, with the selected candidates yet to be announced. Of the 31 candidates who had applied again, none were shortlisted.After an agonising exercise of submitting representations to Bhadrachalam ITDA, District Collector and District Medical and Health Officer several times, these 31 tribal women have lodged a complaint with the police against the Collector as per the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as they felt cheated and robbed of their agency area rights. The inquiry is ongoing.
“The very intention of the Centre for hiring nurses in remote tribal areas is to reduce maternal mortality rate, which is high in these areas. Only a tribal speaking the local language, who understands the tribal behaviour, connects with them emotionally and serves them accordingly, can achieve the desired result. How can a non-tribal do this more effectively than us?” asks Rama Devi.
Posts to be filled only with local STs
As per the earlier notifications, “vacancies for the posts mentioned in GO 8 falling in Scheduled areas should be filled exclusively with the local Scheduled Tribes” under the rule of reservation