MEDIA reports on Wednesday said police lobbed teargas canisters, used water cannons and charged batons on unarmed unemployed nurses to disperse them while they gathered in front of Health Minister’s residence in the capital to protest the faulty recruitment rules. The police action left at least 60 nurses injured as many others suffered from small brushes and run for shelter in panic. Moreover, stick wielding party men supported police and beat the nurses on the street. One can hardly imagine that police were afraid of the female nurses and used party goons to disperse the protest. It is a shameful act and we condemn the assault on the nurses and ask the authorities concerned to see why the nurses were tortured when they were staging the protest which is a constitutional right to ventilate their grievances Nurses who have passed out over the past years remained unemployed overall these years because recruitment to government hospitals also remained shut over these years, and nurses have their legitimate right to demand fair recruitment rules and competitive test for the jobs. The government recently decided to hire 3,616 senior nurses at public hospitals. It has set the eligibility standard at below 36 years of age and candidates must have B.Sc degree or Diploma in Nursing. Nurses say the criteria have been set so narrowly that only handful of them out of many thousands unemployed can qualify only to apply. They want broad-based recruitment rules and recruitment against more posts when the country has a very uneven population-nurse ratio at 5000:1 and doctors-nurse ratio is 2:5. We also believe more nurses may be hired as the country has the stock to militate the shortage. Moreover money can’t be any problem when banks are routinely robbed and massive capital flight shows that money must be used within the country. Nurses are quite right when they say they can’t be discriminated under narrowly set rules and regulations only to screen out them from applying. In fact, public hospitals are languishing for lack of enough nurses while nurses are languishing in the streets demanding jobs. It will be fair that the government should increase the recruitment figure which may in turn tremendously help to improve the quality of health service in public hospitals.The nurses went for protest in front of the Health Minister’s residence, as they were denied a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. But why police were so brutal with them is not clearly understood. We have always said police are public servant and must be respectful to their professional ethics. It is just arrogance of power of a few which is damaging the image of the entire force. It must stop to stop misgivings about police in our national life.
