The Punjab government’s decision to impose a ₹20 lakh mandatory bond with property sureties for MBBS admissions in state-run medical colleges has sparked outrage across the state. The Indian Medical Association (IMA), parents, and students have called it a regressive, exploitative, and anti-poor move, one that threatens to crush the dreams of aspiring doctors while exposing the larger failure of the Punjab health system.

Instead of reforming public healthcare, appointing specialist doctors, or expanding infrastructure, the state has chosen to transfer its failures onto students and their families. The situation becomes even more alarming when seen alongside the steep hike in students fees in government hospitals, which directly exploits the middle class and lower middle class students dream to become doctor rather than addressing the deep rot in the system.

The Punjab government’s newly-imposed bond/surety policy for MBBS and BDS admissions has ignited a storm across the state. Under the rule, each student must submit a ₹20 lakh service bond and pledge two properties worth ₹20 lakh each as sureties. If they fail to serve two years in government facilities after graduation, the bond amount is forfeited.

The move, justified by Health Minister Dr. Balbir Singh as necessary to fill doctor shortages, has instead triggered an unprecedented backlash from parents, students, and the Indian Medical Association (IMA), who have denounced it as “regressive, exploitative and tantamount to bonded labour.”

Parents and Students Crushed Under Surety Rule

For thousands of aspiring doctors, the dream of wearing a white coat is being strangled by financial red tape.

  • Parents who don’t own two properties worth ₹40 lakh are disqualified from sending their children to MBBS, even if their wards have cleared NEET with top ranks.

  • Families with two children face the impossible task of pledging four properties for admissions.

  • A government teacher from Ludhiana said, “I don’t own land. Does that mean my child cannot be a doctor?”

The mental distress is enormous. Instead of celebrating admissions, parents are standing in banks and revenue offices, scrambling to arrange surety documents. Notices issued by medical colleges in Faridkot and Patiala have made it clear: no bond, no classes.

IMA Slams Policy as “Bonded Labour”

The Punjab chapter of the IMA minced no words:

  • The policy is exploitative, regressive, and punitive.

  • Forcing young graduates into underpaid service is bonded labour.

  • High fees + sureties = elitist medical education that locks out the middle class and poor.

  • Instead of solving the doctor shortage, the policy will cause brain drain, as bright students choose private or out-of-state colleges.

According to IMA, forcing graduates to work for meagre stipends lower than neighbouring states is not public service — it is exploitation.

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Govt’s Defence: Shortage of Doctors

“We spend taxpayers’ money on these students. It is their responsibility to give back to society. Punjab needs doctors in rural areas. This bond ensures they will serve for at least two years.” – Dr. Balbir Singh, Punjab’s Health Minister.

But the ground reality raises harsher questions: Why is Punjab unable to retain doctors despite offering jobs? Why are young doctors fleeing government service in the first place?

  • Mandatory Service Bond: Students admitted to MBBS must serve in Punjab government facilities for two years after graduation or pay a penalty of ₹20 lakh.

  • Surety Condition: Parents must pledge two immovable properties worth ₹20 lakh each (₹40 lakh total). Families without multiple properties – especially teachers, lower-income employees, and non-farmers – are effectively excluded.

  • Threat of Denial: Colleges have issued notices: no bond, no classes. Deadlines have been set, and students are under immense psychological stress.

The Larger Picture: Punjab’s Failing Health System

1. Vacant Specialist Posts

  • Punjab’s rural hospitals are plagued by vacancies in gynaecology, paediatrics, anaesthesia and emergency care.

  • Doctors avoid government postings due to poor infrastructure, lack of equipment, unsafe working conditions, and delayed salaries.

  • In many CHCs (Community Health Centres), labour rooms and ICUs are defunct because specialists refuse to work without minimum facilities.

2. Aam Aadmi Clinics – A Political Gimmick?

  • The AAP government aggressively showcased its Aam Aadmi Clinics (AACs) as a healthcare revolution.

  • But these clinics are essentially primary health outposts, often manned by contractual MBBS doctors or AYUSH practitioners.

  • They offer basic OPD services and free medicines, but no emergency care, no admissions, no specialist treatment.

  • Critics argue that instead of strengthening district hospitals and CHCs, the government poured funds into AACs for electoral optics.

3. Private Sector Dependence: The Silent Takeover of Punjab’s Healthcare

Punjab’s healthcare system has been steadily hollowed out, leaving citizens with no choice but to fall into the private sector trap. Instead of strengthening government hospitals, successive governments — including the current one — have paved the way for big private hospital chains to flourish.

1. Routine Referrals to Private Hospitals

  • Government hospitals, short of staff and equipment, routinely refer even basic surgeries like appendicitis, gall bladder removal, caesarean deliveries, or orthopedic fractures to private hospitals.

  • Patients who walk into district hospitals hoping for affordable care are handed referral slips instead of treatment, forcing them to pay lakhs in private facilities.

  • In many cases, doctors on government payrolls are accused of informal nexus with private clinics, ensuring that patients are diverted away from public hospitals.

2. Rural Crisis and the Rise of Quacks

  • In Punjab’s villages, doctors are almost absent from government dispensaries and rural health centres.

  • Into this vacuum step quacks, unqualified practitioners, and chemist shop prescribers, who thrive on people’s helplessness.

  • Villagers often pay with their lives when minor ailments are mismanaged, but they still rely on these quacks because government doctors never show up.

3. Corporate Chains Tighten Their Grip

  • Punjab has seen a mushrooming of private multi-speciality hospital chains in the last decade, especially in Ludhiana, Mohali, Jalandhar, Amritsar, and Bathinda.

  • These hospitals charge astronomical fees — from ₹2 lakh for a bypass surgery to ₹8–10 lakh for a cancer treatment cycle.

  • Families routinely fall into medical debt, selling land or taking heavy loans to save their loved ones.

  • Instead of competing with them by strengthening public healthcare, the government’s weak policies have allowed these chains to become the default healthcare providers for Punjab.

4. The ₹10 Lakh Health Insurance Scheme – A Corporate Jackpot

The state boasts of its new ₹10 lakh per family health insurance scheme, marketed as a boon for the poor. In reality, it has become a pipeline of public money into private pockets:

  • Most empanelled hospitals are private, while government hospitals lack infrastructure to deliver high-value treatments.

  • The bulk of insurance claims are settled by corporate hospital chains, not government facilities.

  • Patients are often told: “Cashless facility available in private, but not in government hospitals.”

  • This means tax money is being directly transferred to private hospitals, while public hospitals remain starved of funds and modernization.

5. The Vicious Cycle of Loot

  • Poor people go to government hospitals → they don’t get treatment → they are referred to private hospitals.

  • Private hospitals charge crores annually → bills are cleared by either families selling assets or via state-sponsored health insurance.

  • Government hospitals continue to decay → dependence on private hospitals deepens further.

This is not an accident — it is the deliberate creation of a two-tier system:

  • Public hospitals for the poor (without doctors, medicines, or machines).

  • Private hospitals for the paying/insured patients (backed by government insurance schemes).

GMC Patiala: Admission 2025, Fees, Courses, Cutoff, Ranking

The Real Cost: People’s Lives

  • Punjab’s families are caught in a double bind — unaffordable private bills and non-functional government hospitals.

  • A single hospitalisation for cancer, heart disease, or accidents can wipe out life savings.

  • Despite the hype around the ₹10 lakh health insurance, many patients are denied claims on technicalities, leaving them worse off than before.

4. Failure to Expand Medical Infrastructure

  • Not a single new government medical college has been started under Bhagwant Mann’s government so far, despite grand announcements.

  • Existing colleges in Amritsar, Patiala, Mohali, and Faridkot remain overcrowded and underfunded.

  • Instead of investing in hostels, labs, specialist faculty and equipment, the government has chosen to place the financial burden on students’ families.

The Core Question: Why Did Punjab Fail to Appoint Specialist Doctors?

The bond policy exposes the government’s decades-long failure to strengthen the health sector:

  1. Vacant Posts: Hundreds of specialist positions remain vacant in Punjab hospitals despite repeated recruitment drives.

  2. Low Salaries: Doctors in Punjab’s government hospitals earn far less than their counterparts in neighbouring states like Haryana and Himachal.

  3. Rural Neglect: No real incentives (housing, security, allowances) exist to attract doctors to villages.

  4. Contractual Exploitation: Many doctors are hired on contract with meagre pay, no job security, no promotions.

  5. Failure of Aam Aadmi Clinics: Launched with hype, these clinics offer basic OPD care only – no specialists, no emergency services, no in-patient care. They remain political showpieces.

Failure of Bhagwant Mann Government: Big Promises, Zero Delivery in Health Sector in a leadership of Dr Balbir Singh and Finace Minsiter Harpal Singh Cheema.

Failure of Bhagwant Mann Government: Big Promises, Zero Delivery

  • No new government medical college has been started by the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government so far.

  • Instead of investing in infrastructure, the government is busy pushing financial traps like the bond and hospital fee hikes.

  • AAP came to power promising “Delhi model healthcare”, but Punjab’s hospitals remain under-staffed, under-equipped, and now over-priced.

  • Villagers still rely on quacks, private clinics, and costly private hospitals for treatment.

Wider Implications: Collapse of Public Trust

  • Students feel cheated – their education is no longer a ticket to service or stability, but a lifelong debt trap.

  • Parents feel betrayed – government education was supposed to be affordable, not a privilege for the rich.

  • Patients are losing faith – if government hospitals also charge like private ones, where should the poor go?

Voices From the Ground

  • “This is bonded labour disguised as service,” said a final-year MBBS student from Patiala.

  • “My son scored very good in NEET but I cannot pledge land. His dream ends here,” cried a parent in Bathinda.

  • “Instead of improving hospitals, the minister is mortgaging Punjab’s children’s future,” said an IMA office bearer.

A Policy That Punishes the Poor

The bond/surety policy is not healthcare reform. It is a shortcut solution designed to cover up decades of neglect. By criminalising parents who cannot pledge property, Punjab’s government is shutting the doors of medicine on the middle class and the poor.

The truth is simple: doctors don’t stay because the system is broken, not because bonds are missing. Unless Punjab invests in infrastructure, salaries, and dignity of service, the health crisis will deepen.

Instead of creating more hospitals and specialist posts, the government has chosen the easiest target — students and parents.

“This isn’t just bad policy. It is betrayal.”

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