Doctor's Post About His Monthly Salary 10 Years After Completing MBBS Goes Viral

Dr Sudhir Kumar during a discussing on Twitter explained how he learnt to live with the bare minimum after realising that a "doctor's life should be frugal". 

One assumes that someone who has completed his MBBS degree and has started practicing the profession would be earning handsomely, probably in lakhs. But a Hyderabad doctor's revelation about his salary has surprised everyone. Dr Sudhir Kumar, a neurologist at Apollo Hospitals during a discussing on Twitter said he received a salary of Rs 9,000 even after finishing his MBBS approximately 16 years ago.

Kumar was explaining how he learnt to live with the bare minimum after realising that a "doctor's life should be frugal". 

"My salary 4 years after DM Neurology (2004) was Rs 9,000 per month. This was 16 years after joining MBBS. At CMC Vellore, by observing my professors, I realised that a doctor's life should be frugal and learned to live with the bare minimum," Dr Sudhir Kumar tweeted while replying to a person who said it is difficult for "a young practitioner to do social service when he is struggling to make ends meet himself".

"I was happy with that salary, however, my mother felt upset seeing me get the same salary that a peon got in a government office (where my father worked). She had seen me study hard for 12 years in school, followed by 12 years of MBBS, MD and DM. You can understand a mother's love and pain," he wrote in another tweet.

The Twitter thread went viral and sparked a discussion on payments of doctors in the country.

"That was indeed very low. PhD students used to get a stipend of Rs. 8000 per month (tax-free) at that time!," commented one user on the post.

"₹9000/month in 2004 after 4 years as a Neurologist! That's shocking, Sir. I, as an Intern MO (Lieutenant in Army Medical Corps) after passing MBBS in Dec 2004 was getting ₹17K/month in 2005 at Military Hospital, Bareilly. Guess govt sector paid much higher at that time," wrote another user.

"As far as I can remember, I earned Rs 5500 as a ENT post graduate in Hubli government hospital in 2000 Nothing unbelievable about this, that was the value society placed on you those days!," wrote a third.

"Lol. Frugal living is a personal choice. What one does with ones earnings is a personal choice. It does not define competence. Please don't peddle these ideas on a social platform to the public," wrote a fourth.