Every year, AIIMS takes in 50 students for the MBBS degree. Thirty-three seats are open for the general category, 11 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, one for a physically handicapped student, and five seats are kept for international students nominated by the government. For the Post Graduate course, as many as 15,000 students appear for just 40 seats.

"You might be the topper and still not get a PG seat. It is tougher to crack the PG exam here. On the other hand, getting admission in America may be difficult but it has certainty," says Ekta Bakshi, a junior resident.

It was the long battle ahead at every stage of their study of medicine that made many like Ekta join the protest last year.

"If it was a one time thing I would have fought it out in the next entrance but this was going to happen at every stage of my career. For PG, residency, senior residency, getting my first faculty position and then to get promoted."

It's a feeling shared by final year MBBS student Mohit Mohanty. Sipping his coffee at the campus cafe on a Sunday afternoon, Mohit says he always wanted to be a doctor but as much as he wants to do his PG at AIIMS, he has no choice.

"I'd like to stay here but if I don't get admission in PG, I have to look at America. Half my batch is looking towards going abroad. Here if you slog for 24 hours, you get Rs 20,000. You really don't get paid in India, unless you are doing private practice but I don't want to steal or be part of a system that steals from the people," he says firmly.

Image: Medical students and junior doctors went on strike at AIIMS last year. They were protesting against the government's decision to introduce 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes, taking the number of reserved seats to 50 per cent.
Photographs: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
Also see: How reservations fracture Hindu society

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