"36-Hour Duty = Institutional Murder" | UDF fumes Over Medical Student Suicides
Dr. Lakshya Mittal demands urgent reform in toxic medical college work culture; slams system failure behind rising suicides.
New Delhi | July 26, 2025:
The United Doctors Front (UDF) has launched a blistering attack on India’s medical education system, calling out the brutal conditions that are driving young medical students to suicide.
In a strong statement to the Supreme Court-appointed National Taskforce during a consultation at the UGC, UDF Chairperson Dr. Lakshya Mittal didn’t mince words saying: “These are not suicides. These are institutional murders.”
The numbers are terrifying. Over 25 medical students have died by suicide in the first seven months of 2025 alone.
That’s more than the annual average of 24 recorded over the past five years.
Dr. Mittal directly linked this alarming rise to the inhuman work hours being forced upon resident doctors across the country.
Young doctors are routinely made to work for up to 36 hours at a stretch, violating every standard of humane employment.
This, despite clear directions laid out in the Central Residency Scheme of 1992 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), which capped duty at 48 hours per week and no more than 12 hours at a stretch.
But as UDF pointed out, these rules remain only on paper. In most government medical colleges, they’re blatantly ignored.
Dr. Mittal reminded the taskforce that even the Supreme Court had termed such long duties “inhuman” during the hearing of the RG Kar Medical College case in Kolkata — where a young female resident doctor was raped and murdered after allegedly working a 36-hour shift.
According to UDF, this toxic, unregulated work culture is the real virus infecting our medical institutions.
It’s not just about overwork. It’s about mental breakdowns, burnout, depression, and, increasingly, death.
“This is a system-wide collapse,” Dr. Mittal said. “We are sacrificing our future doctors to a broken machine.”
In its detailed representation, UDF has demanded strict enforcement of the Central Residency Scheme.
The NGO wants fixed duty hours, mandatory weekly offs, and annual leave for all resident doctors.
They’ve made it clear — if India wants to stop medical student suicides, it must start with systemic reform, not just token mental health campaigns.
The Supreme Court-appointed taskforce, which includes Dr. Aqsa Shaikh, has been tasked with recommending urgent solutions to prevent student suicides.
With UDF’s explosive submission now in the spotlight, the pressure is mounting on the authorities to finally act.
As the country debates the future of medical education, Dr. Mittal’s message couldn’t be more blunt — “Fix this system or prepare to lose more lives.”
Let’s not lose more doctors to the same system that trains them to save lives.
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#StopDoctorSuicides #FixDutyHours #JusticeForDoctors #MedicalMentalHealth
