At The Forefront Of Battle Against Coronavirus Around The World - The Story Of Kerala Nurses
No matter which part of the globe that is, if there is a hospital there, there is a high chance that you will run into a nurse from Kerala. While it might sound like an exaggeration, it is not. There are so many people from Kerala who choose nursing as a career and are now living and working across the world.?
A lot of them are currently the frontline warriors in various countries fighting the battle against Covid-19.Someone I know through social media, just posted the other day on Facebook saying that both he and his wife who were working as nurses in Milan, Italy have been tested positive for Covid-19.?
According to him, the 85-year-old man from who the couple got the infection has since died. Four of their colleagues have also been tested positive for the infection. But unlike in India, in Italy where the medical infrastructure has been stretched beyond its limits, the duo have been asked to remain home, and despite being in a mortally terrifying situation, he says he is confident that they will make a full recovery. And in the meantime, they are spending time with their children, aged six and two.?
This is the same resolve I have heard from so many of my friends, family, and former classmates who are working across the world in the past few weeks.Another childhood friend who works with the NHS in the UK also told me that both he and his wife who is working in a different hospital are attending to Covid-19 positive patients and at the end of the day comes home where they live with their twin sons.?
I have heard similar stories from other countries like New Zealand, Australia and across the middle east and several cities in India, who say that they know the risks involved but puts their patients first.In Delhi, most of them are now working on 12-hours shifts for days on a stretch due to the Covid-19 situation. And it is this dedication that has been praised across the world and made them some of the most south after paramedical professionals.?
So how did Kerala end up producing so many nurses??
A lot of this is due to the influence of Christianity and the Christian Missionaries who set up some of the best hospitals in the state. They also began training girls from the community as nurses, who later migrated abroad and made a fortune there.?
This was too good an opportunity for many middle to low-income families in the state to refuse and they too began sending their children for nursing courses, on the hope that if at least one of them gets a job in Europe, the US or in the Middle East, the family is secured for life.?
In the early 2000s, nursing had become so popular in the state anyone completing higher secondary had only three options in front of them - engineering, medical or nursing. With most of them choosing nursing, because it was comparatively affordable, in no time Kerala became the land of nurses.?
Many who could not get admission in the state went to nursing colleges in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.It has got to a point where at least in my village there is not a single house without a nurse.?
Even in Delhi, among the Malayali community, there is a long-running joke about INA. For Malayalees, INA stands for Ivide Nurseumar Alayunnu (Nurses loiter here).?
Expectation vs reality?
Most nursing students come from middle and lower-income families and in most cases have taken a loan for their studies. But only after they sign up they are hit by the reality that the grass is not all green.?
A lot students have to undergo a bond period where they have to work in the same hospital where they studied nursing for a period ranging from six months to two years, where they are paid little to nothing.?
Even after they get a job, most of them start their career at a salary of less than Rs 15,000 from which they have to find enough to pay their rent and other living expenses at the same time pay back the loans and send some money home every month.?
It is out of this desperation that many are willing to take a risk and work in counties that are caught up in conflicts and wars. Just a few years ago, Kerala nurses had made headlines after hundreds of nurses had to be evacuated from Erbil in Iraq after the city was run over by ISIS.?
Even in Yemen and Libya, there were similar scenes and most of them were initially reluctant to return due to the burden of responsibilities they had.Back home in Kerala, most nurses complain that they do not get paid well.?
It had reached a point in 2017 when the nurses in Kerala went on a strike for weeks demanding a better salary and after nearly three weeks of protests, the government agreed to a minimum salary of Rs 20,000 per month.?
Despite all the hardships they go through, no one can question their passion and dedication to the profession.?
And every now and then we come across stories of sacrifices like nurses Vineeta P K and Ramya Rajappan, who died while saving the patients after the 2011 AMRI Hospital fire incident and nurse Lini who died while attending nipah patients in a Kerala hospital in 2018.
