M M Jasim :The unemployed diploma nurses staged indefinite demonstration in front of the National Press Club for the 25th day on Thursday, demanding cancellation of test-based recruitment.They resorted to hunger strike unto death the same day at the same place. They also brought out a procession wearing coffins.Bangladesh Diploma Bekar Nurses’ Association (BDBNA) President Rina Akhter told The New Nation on Thursday that the nurses under the banner of BDBNA and Bangladesh Basic Graduate Nurses’ Society (BBGNS) have been demanding the government to press home their demand, but the government did not pay heed to their demands. Now they have nothing but to go on hunger strike,” she said. General Secretary of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) Shirin Akhter in the rally on Thursday expressed her solidarity with the nurses’ ongoing demonstration and said: The nurses’ demonstration is logical. “Your demonstration will not be failure. I will talk to the Parliament members on the issue. Even I will talk with the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. I think that she will take initiative to resolve the crisis,” she said. Earlier the Public Service Commission decided to appoint the diploma nurses through examinations instead of existing system. The circular was published in different national dailies on November 25. On March 28, a circular advertising recruitment of 3,616 senior nurses through examinations frustrated unemployed nursing graduates who were hoping to be recruited on the basis of year of graduation, merit and seniority.Since then the unemployed diploma nurses have been holding various programmes in front of the National Press Club, Central Shaheed Mina, and some other places in a peaceful manner. At least 40 nurses were injured on that day after police charged batons, lobbed tear gas canisters, and used pepper spray and water cannons on the demonstrators at the Shahabah intersection of the capital. The nurses also gheraoed the office of the Directorate of Nursing Services at Agargaon in Dhaka on April 2. They submitted two memorandums to the Prime Minister and the Health Minister on April 3.M Iqbal Hossain Sabuj, a leader of the organization, said, the new rules could prevent qualified, senior nurses from getting jobs as they were likely to be out of consideration for theory presented in nursing books for student nurses.”We want the government a recruitment policy based on batch, seniority and merit like the past,” Faruk Hossain, secretary general of the nurses association,” he said. Mousumi Akter, one of the demonstrating nurses, said, “We will be on the street till our demands are met. If required, we will soak our white dresses with our blood and then we will return home.”President of BBGNS Rajib Kumar Biswas said, the BDBNA and BBGNS have been observing a peaceful demonstration jointly with the sole demand of recruiting on the basis of batch, merit and seniority for a long period, though no hope has so far been provided by the government yet”.He said, “Earlier, the nurse friendly government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recruited about 6,500 nurses in two phases according to batch, merit and seniority. At present, the number of unemployed nurses holding diploma-in-nursing and BSC-in-Nursing degrees is almost 2,100, though there is a huge shortage of nurses in the public sector. At present, 10,000 posts are vacant for nurses, though available vacant posts are only 3,728. 89pc of these 13,728 posts should be filled with registered nurses with diploma-in-nursing degrees and 11pc posts should be filled with registered nurses with basic BSC-in-Nursing degrees according to batch, merit and seniority. Recruitment advertising for 616 ‘senior stuff nurse’ published by Bangladesh Public Service Commission (PSC) should be cancelled for the greater interest.”
