Revision as of 18:42, 8 November 2016

Migration

2010-16

The Times of India, May 09 2016

Sumitra Deb Roy

Nursing brain drain in Maha as emigration hits 5-yr high

At a time when the Indian government has locked horns with doctors over their right to settle in the US permanently , emigration among nurses in Maharashtra has touched a T five-year high in 2015-16. d The last financial year saw a 93% jump in the number of nurses leaving for an international placement when compared to 2010-11.

Statistics collated by the Maharashtra Nursing Council (MNC) that issues NOCs to nurses taking up global placements revealed around 1,567 nurses left the country in 201516, as against 814 five years ago or 920 in 2013-14. It has also emerged that the US and the UK are no longer the most favoured destinations since a significant majority of them took up jobs in Ireland, Aus tralia and New Zealand that offered annual pay packages in the range of Rs 30-50 lakh.

Estimates suggest 25,000 trained nurses across India leave every year for better pay ing jobs.Even the Centre's noti fication of April 2015 banning private agencies from recruit ing nurses for overseas jobs failed to make a significant im pact in Maharashtra. The or der has hit even traditional hubs like Kerala, which saw over a 60% decline in international placements last year.

Maharashtra, too, witnessed a slowdown like Kerala, but not a drastic dip. It managed to register a 2% annual rise in nurses accepting foreign jobs in 2015-16 (1,567) from 2014-15 (1,532), though in previous years the year-onyear increase in international placements ranged from 1770%. “There was a temporary slowdown in recruitments due to the order from the Centre but nurses from Maharashtra still got good offers,“ said Ramling Mali, president of MNC. “The UK has started asking for a higher TOEFL score (English proficiency test) of 7.5 instead of previous 6.5. Many nurses in Maharashtra are finding it difficult to clear the test,“ said Mangala Anchan, registrar of MNC.