02-08-2025
Doctors hold protest march at AIIMS, Delhi, demand rotatory headship
Doctors of the faculty associations of AIIMS, Delhi, and PGIMER, Chandigarh, held a protest march inside the Delhi institute on Friday evening, demanding rotatory headship. The doctors wanted to proceed towards Parliament, but were stopped by the Delhi Police as they did not have permission to do so.
Officials from the associations said that around 50 doctors gathered on campus and were later called by the director and the additional director, administration, for a dialogue on how to take the matter forward. The doctors were also carrying placards inscribed with messages like 'Justice delayed, justice denied', 'Equal opportunity for all, rotatory headship'.
'During this discussion, we conveyed the collective concerns and urgency of faculty members, and they reassured us that efforts would be made to reach a positive and time-bound resolution,' Dr Amarinder Singh Malhi, general secretary, Faculty Association of AIIMS, said.
The Faculty Association of AIIMS, Delhi, and the Faculty Association of PGIMER, Chandigarh, have been demanding a rotatory headship policy at the two institutes for over a decade now. In this regard, several committees have been constituted by the Centre, and almost every panel has recommended its implementation in principle.
Prior to this, doctors at AIIMS, Delhi, have been continuing peaceful protests, including black badge protests in May, relay hunger strikes from June 2025 onwards under the banner 'Hunger for Justice', 'Relay for Change', and protests on Doctors' Day during which the faculty and residents wore black badges, black T-shirts and also went on a relay hunger strike.
The rotatory headship, the associations said, is an administrative reform that will have impactful progress and transparency in the administration of AIIMS, New Delhi, and PGIMER, Chandigarh.
At present, a similar system is already in place in other top medical institutes like IMS, BHU Varanasi, NIMHANS Bengaluru, JIPMER Puducherry and CMC Vellore, and the faculty of these institutes have expressed their satisfaction with this administrative system, the associations added.
