Breaking Point: Postgraduate Doctors Quit Premier Medical Institutes Amid Claims of Toxic Culture
A troubling trend is emerging within India’s most prestigious medical training grounds. Despite securing top ranks in the highly competitive NEET-PG examinations, a significant number of postgraduate residents are voluntarily walking away from their training programmes. Recent data obtained through Right to Information (RTI) applications reveals a persistent pattern of departures across various AIIMS campuses and JIPMER, Puducherry, casting a spotlight on the severe pressures facing the next generation of specialists.
The Human Cost of Residency
While some institutions have reported a marginal decline in the total number of resignations compared to previous years, the attrition remains alarmingly steady. At AIIMS Delhi, 34 junior residents resigned in 2025. Similarly, JIPMER recorded 44 resignations across its January and July batches. The trend extends across the country, with AIIMS Rishikesh reporting 30 departures, while AIIMS Raipur, Patna, and Kalyani have all documented double-digit exits among their postgraduate cohorts.
The reasons behind these decisions are increasingly linked to the gruelling environment of medical residency. Dr. Lakshya Mittal, chairperson of the United Doctors Front (UDF), highlights a culture of exploitation that many young doctors find unsustainable. According to Dr. Mittal, residents are frequently subjected to shifts exceeding 36 hours, workplace harassment, and a rigid institutional hierarchy that often crosses the line from academic discipline into humiliation.
“Residency is meant to train doctors, not break them,” Dr. Mittal stated. The UDF has been vocal in demanding systemic reforms, including the strict enforcement of capped working hours and the establishment of independent grievance-redressal mechanisms to protect junior doctors from institutional toxicity. The issue has now reached the Supreme Court, with the UDF filing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking greater accountability.
The Transparency Gap
One of the most concerning aspects of this crisis is the apparent lack of institutional oversight regarding the mental health of residents. The RTI responses revealed a fragmented and often non-existent approach to documenting the psychological toll of residency.
Most premier institutes could not provide consolidated data on how many students sought psychiatric counselling due to workplace-related stress or sleep deprivation. While some campuses, such as AIIMS Patna and Rishikesh, reported isolated instances of students seeking mental health support, others—including AIIMS Raipur—reported zero residents seeking help, a figure that many industry observers find highly improbable given the intense pressures of the field. Other institutes declined to share such information entirely, citing administrative provisions.
A Call for Reform
The resignation figures, while illustrative of a broader malaise, only provide a partial view of the problem. With many institutes failing to maintain records on the underlying causes of these exits, the medical education system appears to be operating in the dark.
As the legal battle moves forward in the Supreme Court, the medical community is calling for a paradigm shift. The current model, which often treats exhaustion as a badge of honour, is proving incompatible with modern standards of worker safety and mental well-being. For India’s top medical aspirants, the promise of a premier education is being overshadowed by the fear that the system intended to build their careers may ultimately destroy their health. The challenge for policymakers now is to reconcile the high demands of clinical training with the fundamental rights and dignity of the doctors tasked with saving the nation’s lives.
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