There is a particular kind of injustice that wears the mask of bureaucratic delay. It does not arrive with fanfare or confrontation. It simply accumulates, year upon year, until the weight of it becomes unbearable for those condemned to carry it. This is precisely what approximately 3,000 non-gazetted employees across five Government Medical Colleges – GMC Kathua, Doda, Rajouri, Anantnag, and Baramulla – have been enduring since their appointment in 2019. No promotions. No Departmental Promotion Committees. No Service Recruitment Rules. Six years of faithful service, and not a single step forward on the career ladder. The Health and Medical Education Department in Jammu and Kashmir owes these employees – and the public – a credible explanation.
The most fundamental question, one that policymakers appear curiously reluctant to address, is: why do the new GMCs require entirely separate Service Recruitment Rules in the first place? All Government Medical Colleges, whether established decades ago or more recently, are precisely that – medical colleges, bound by the same academic and clinical mandates and serving identical institutional purposes. The existing frameworks governing non-gazetted staff in older GMCs could reasonably have served as an adoptable base model with necessary modifications to reflect local conditions or staffing structures. That sensible, practical path was never taken. Instead, the matter was handed to successive committees that produced recommendations without consequence, creating what can only be described as deliberate administrative theatre. The decision to treat these institutions as categorically distinct – necessitating entirely fresh rule-making – was, at best, questionable in conception and, at worst, an act of negligence that directly impairs the operational effectiveness of the new colleges. Institutions cannot function with coherence and discipline when thousands of their employees have no defined progression, no promotional hierarchy, and no professional roadmap. That is not a minor inconvenience; it is a structural wound. This is not an isolated lapse. The H&ME Department has, regrettably, developed something of a reputation for unequal treatment across its institutions. The most glaring example remains the disparity between the two oldest Government Medical Colleges: while the sanctioned faculty strength at GMC Srinagar has been progressively augmented, that of GMC Jammu has remained stagnant for decades, despite serving a comparable patient population and healthcare burden. Meanwhile, GMC Anantnag – itself one of the newer colleges – continues to function with a majority of its faculty positions vacant, an untenable situation for any teaching hospital. When inequity is embedded at the gazetted level, it is hardly surprising that non-gazetted employees are treated as an afterthought.
It is totally illogical to describe doctors as the pillars of a hospital. This is not inaccurate, but it is incomplete. A hospital functions because of the entire ecosystem of personnel that surrounds clinical care. The nursing staff, laboratory technicians, paramedical workers, administrative personnel, and Class-IV employees are not peripheral to healthcare delivery – they are integral to it. From patient registration at the front desk to diagnostic tests in the laboratory, and from ward management through the night to the maintenance of critical equipment, it is largely the non-gazetted workforce that keeps the machinery running. To deny this workforce a structured career path is to deny the reality of how hospitals actually operate.
The Union Territory’s Administration has publicly and repeatedly articulated its ambition to develop Jammu and Kashmir as a destination for medical and healthcare tourism. It is a worthy aspiration. Yet the same Government has been unable, in six years, to draft and notify service rules for employees already serving in its own medical colleges. The contradiction is not merely embarrassing – it is corrosive to institutional credibility and staff morale alike. Career progression is not a privilege extended at the discretion of the Administration. It is a fundamental professional right, one that sustains motivation, rewards commitment, and preserves institutional dignity. These employees have served the system with patience that has long since been exhausted.
The Secretary of H&ME has confirmed that the process has been “initiated”. That word – ‘initiated’ – after six years of stagnation, is cold comfort. The Government must move beyond initiation to execution, and it must do so without further delay. Enough time has been lost. Enough careers have been frozen. The system must now serve those who have served it.
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