Age of Retirement

The Government found that a lot of Professors would retire soon, and there would be such severe shortage of Professors that the medical colleges would be derecognized by the medical council. Instead of appointing new professors by promotion or selection, they decided to increase the age of retirement from 58 to 65. Some time in between that came to be. Then the teachers in corporation hospitals realized they could also benefit from this. Letters were written, appeals were made, administrators were talked to, and the proposal was submitted to the commissioner, and rejected. Some Associate Professors were against this move, because their promotions would be delayed. They did not realize that the whole thing was just being advanced in time, and they would get to work and earn for that much longer. Then it seems the commissioner was told that the proposal was as per UGC and was binding. So he permitted it. That does not mean it happens immediately. It has to be passed by the standing committee and then the house. The age proposed is 62 and not 65. While this was happening, people who were going to retire very soon were praying. Those who were atheist suddenly started believing in God. Those who were to get promoted when someone retired started praying that the proposal got delayed just until after the retirement of the senior concerned. Those of us who were keen to see someone incompetent or lazy go started praying for appropriate delay too. Those of us who knew God would do the right thing anyway just waited for the right thing to happen. In the meantime, someone said that the medical council had recently recommended that the age of retirement be raised to 70. I don’t see that happening in the corporation colleges. Instead of putting off the inevitable by four years, they should increase the salaries of the medical teachers so that there would be no difference between the earnings in private practice and in teaching jobs. At the same time they should also ensure that the teachers are not harassed by silly things but allowed to do what they are meant to do, teaching, patient care, research and scientific writing. It may come to making some of them actually do these things, since allowing them to do so does not mean they actually do those things. I wonder how many of us remain physically fit beyond 58 to work as before. I hear they do not pay dues after retirement in time, such as provident fund, and pension, in case someone retires prematurely. If that is true, a lot of people who might opt for retiring at 58 instead of going on to 62 might not do so, whether they can actually work or not. I heard someone say that teachers will join private medical colleges after retirement from corporation job, since they will be eligible to be teachers up to 70. I hear the medical council wants about 300 more medical colleges to come up soon. I cannot understand where they will get teachers required, since there is already a shortage. Will they then adopt maneuvers more energetically like showing teachers who exist only for council inspections, or moving teachers from college to college depending on where the inspection is being held?