As the state mulls over motivating mortuary staffers with higher incentives, staffers complain they have not even been paid the paltry allowance promised since 2008
No child ever dreams of making a career out of cutting open corpses. And it’s hardly a dream job for those who eventually take on the task of conducting post-mortems. It was for this reason that Haryana and Karnataka in April decided to pay staffers higher incentives, ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per body. Closer home in Maharashtra, workers have not even received the paltry Rs 130 they were promised eight years ago.
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Pic/Prabhanjan Dhanu
Not only is the work unpleasant and risky, but staffers who carry out autopsies aren’t get enough compensation or benefits like insurance to make up for it.
To keep them motivated, the state government had passed a Government Resolution (GR) on April 30, 2008, promising an incentive of Rs 130 as Post-Mortem Allowance (PMA) per body, to be shared between the entire team (see ‘How it’s split’).
Modest as the sum is, it will still help to supplement the regular salary earned by staffers. If they ever got it, that is.
“Haryana increased the amount from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per post-mortem, whereas Karnataka has increased it from Rs 300 to Rs 500, and in Maharashtra, we are not even paid our Rs 130. Isn’t it shameful?” a mortuary worker pointed out.
A post-mortem surgeon attached to a BMC centre also echoed the sae frustration: “In Karnataka, they pay Rs 500 per dead body, of which Rs 250 is to the forensic surgeon and remaining R250 is given to the other staff. Here, we are not paid at all.”
Worst at BMC centres
Out of the city’s 11 post-mortem centres, it’s those that are run by the BMC that are the worst off. While other government centres have not been paid for as long as five years, the BMC centres have never been paid the post-mortem allowance.
A senior forensic surgeon from the BMC-run Nair post-mortem centre said, “The allowance was a way to motivate staff to join the forensic department. Usually, not many medical students would want to pursue post-graduation in forensic medicine, as they don’t like to deal with dead bodies and the job involves high risk. We have never been given such allowance, even though the GR has in place for such a long time. Meanwhile, other states are doing good by promoting forensic medicine.”
“The irony is that instead of forwarding the GR to the accounts department and instructing them to incorporate the allowance directly in the salary, we are expected to do the clerical work of making records and then obtaining sanction for the allowance from our head of the department and then plead for it, which is unfair,” added the doctor.
There’s hope
The dean of KEM hospital, who is also the director of medical education and health in BMC, Dr Avinash Supe said, “We have made a recommendation for post-mortem allowances for all three centres under BMC medical colleges, wherein we have suggested that apart from their monthly salary, they should be entitled for a post-mortem allowance, which will vary from monthly Rs 1,500, Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 monthly, depending on their grade and nature of work. The civic body will incorporate the same in its circular and we hope that it is approved in the next three to four months.”
Police Surgeon Dr SM Patil’s response was to shift the blame on the staff for not submitting the paperwork.
“We have never said no for payment, but that initiative should be taken by the staff, and not the police surgeon. If they send the list of post-mortems every month, I have no reason to not sign them and get the money transferred to their account. But our staff only know to complain about such trivial issues.”
However, he too added that the authorities were in talks to match the higher PMA that is offered in Haryana and Karanataka.
“Just last week, we had a meeting with the Medico Legal Association of Maharashtra, wherein we discussed the special allowance that is being paid by the Haryana and Karnataka governments. We want a similar practice to be started here. We will send our proposal to the government soon,” he said. In return, Patil said the staffers would be expected to improve their performance and bring in more accountability.
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