The National Doctors’ Day is celebrated on July 1 each year in India. The society at large considers the medical profession as noble; doctors are often termed as life savers across the world. Despite this status accorded to them, one of the emerging paradoxes of the decade has been the status of student doctors – the resident medical officers (RMOs). Their situation has been marred with prohibitive work hours, inhumane living conditions and poor pay. Added to these are issues of hostile work environment and normalisation of sexual harassment by senior academicians and colleagues. Media has consistently reported on a pattern of overwork, under pay and violence against RMOs. The sexual assault and subsequent murder of a young female RMO last year highlighted serious lacunae in the safety protocols, infrastructure and oversight of medical administration. However, as soon as media attention dried up, public scrutiny related to the status of RMOs reduced.CEHAT, a non-profit research organisation, has closely engaged with health professionals on an array of issues. We felt that a rapid survey with RMOs of Maharashtra can help spotlight issues affecting them and identify priority areas for action by administrative authorities. The survey focused on recurring issues of long work hours, poor work conditions, delayed remuneration and its impact on physical and mental health. CEHAT has also analysed 47 print and online news reports (January-November 2025) on problems faced by resident doctors. The team realised that RMOs did not even have the time to respond to the survey. Despite collaboration with Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) and consistent follow ups through medical colleges and social media, a meagre 55 of approximately 10,000 RMOs (Maharashtra) responded to the rapid survey. Majority of the respondents – 49 out of 55 – were from government medical colleges. Even if the survey carried explicit informed consent, as senior residents disclosed, fear of authorities, disclosure of identity and excessive workload could deter their participation in the survey. Although less than 1% of RMO’s undertook the survey, their responses indicate consistent lack of administrative and political will to address these serious concerns.Stipend payments are unpredictable, not just delayedOnly two of the 55 respondents in the study said they were paid on a fixed date each month, whereas 26 described their stipend schedule as “highly irregular”. The most commonly cited reason was administrative or procedural and often to do with attendance or paper work and the stipend was stuck somewhere in the system. Respondents reported delays and non-payment of stipends placed a significant financial strain on them; many had to pay monthly rent, mess charges as well as support families. They said the only thing that has ever moved the needle on delays was a strike, usually organised through the MARD.Institutional housing comes at a cost residents bear themselvesDespite the fact that RMOs are expected to remain available round the clock, and even on their off-duty days, 48 of 55 respondents paid for on-campus accommodation. These charges were deducted from their stipends. Despite paying for on campus accommodation, more than half reported poor cleanliness and hygiene of toilets, lack of access to flowing water and poor lighting in corridors leading to safety concerns. On quality of accommodation, all respondents rated toilets and cleanliness as poor, whereas 18/55 rated safety and lighting as poor, and 22 rated water access as poor. Residents staying off campus were required to pay for their own travel, adding strain to their existing financial resources. Almost no one received travel allowance and all respondents paid for their own meals regardless of length of their duty hours.Working hours regularly exceed safe limitsNot a single respondent reported working within the stipulated 11-hour day. Thirty-five of 55 respondents reported working extra hours at least once a week. Of these, the most commonly reported pattern was 45-60 hours weekly (27 respondents), 11 reported 60-75 hours, three reported 75-90 hours, and eight reported working more than 90 hours a week. Fifteen of 55 respondents said they had worked a continuous shift of more than 24 hours. None reported being compensated for overtime.Grievance reporting mechanismsThirty-six of 55 respondents did not have any information related to either grievance redressal mechanisms or reporting of sexual harassment systems such as a Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH). Among the 19 who knew it existed, only three had ever used it. For broader workplace grievances like unsafe conditions, excessive hours, or administrative disputes, a majority (40/55) did not use any formal mechanism. Several respondents described avoiding recording complaints for fear of being ridiculed, as well as losing their standing with the faculty besides risking their postings, evaluations, and exam results. Why this persistsThe findings of this survey are consistent with concerns that have been raised repeatedly by resident doctors’ associations. A nationwide FAIMA survey reported in The Indian Express found the same pattern, poor infrastructure paired with irregular pay and overwork, across states. A recent statewide study by MARD also documented long working hours and delayed stipends across government medical colleges, highlighting the continued challenges faced by resident doctors in Maharashtra. Research has linked such working conditions to burnout, stress, reduced well-being, and an increased risk of medical error. However, the National medical commission (NMC) does not seem to take serious cognisance of these persistent problems.As an apex regulatory body, NMC has a large mandate spanning medical education, quality of doctor’s, professional ethics and grievance oversight. The CBME 2019 framework envisions doctors to become compassionate, patient-centred and fulfil the roles of clinician, communicator, and professional. However, without reforming the conditions of RMOs, such a vision seems rhetorical. Additionally, long working hours, coupled with fear of authorities raise important questions about whether current medical training environments adequately support the development of these competencies. While the present survey did not directly assess mental health outcomes, its findings should be interpreted alongside this broader body of evidence. This is particularly relevant in light of CEHAT’s 2019 study conducted with KEM Hospital and MARD, which documented the impact of workplace violence on resident doctors. Among residents who had experienced violence, many reported fear, anxiety, sadness, loss of motivation and reluctance to continue working. ConclusionThis survey adds to a growing body of evidence that the working conditions of resident doctors in Maharashtra remain precarious and shrouded in a climate of fear of reporting harassment. Taken together, long working hours, inconsistent stipends, poor living conditions and harassment function as occupational hazards of residency, conditions that come with the job rather than failures of it.RMOs are trained to accept these as part of trainee life, something to be endured on the way to a degree, and so many residents who complain about these conditions during training tend to set the issue aside once residency is over. For institutions, this works to their advantage – they know RMOs are dependent on completing their training, so they extract the maximum amount of work from them, and this relentless cycle continues. What goes largely unexamined is the damaging effect this has on the psyche of RMOs, who become emotionally hardened and physically depleted in the process.This, in turn, risks producing a more mechanical approach to healthcare, one that erodes the doctor-patient relationship at precisely the point in training meant to build it. A training system that depletes residents emotionally and physically before they ever reach independent practice works against that goal.In the meantime, the findings here call for urgent reflection, not on whether resident doctors are essential to India’s public hospitals, but on what kind of doctors a system can reasonably expect to produce when it does not meet their most basic needs first.Each National Doctors’ Day renews a public tribute to the profession’s service. This survey suggests that tribute will remain incomplete as long as it is paid to doctors while the system continues to overlook the everyday conditions of the resident doctors training to become them.Ajinkya Deshmukh is Senior Research Associate, Sangeeta Rege is Senior Advisor and Former Director. Amruta Bavadekar is the Director, and Uvika Durani is Senior Research Associate at Centre for enquiry into health and allied themes (CEHAT), Mumbai.