‘Equal work, equal stipend’: Foreign medical graduates protest in Hyderabad demanding ₹29,792 monthly

About 100 foreign medical graduates (FMGs) from various parts of Telangana gathered at Dharna Chowk in Hyderabad on Thursday (October 15, 2026) | Photo Credit: Siddharth Kumar Singh

About 100 foreign medical graduates (FMGs) from various parts of Telangana gathered at Dharna Chowk in Hyderabad on Thursday (October 15, 2026) demanding that the government pay them stipends on a par with Indian medical graduates (IMGs) during their compulsory internship.

The protesters are seeking a monthly stipend of ₹29,792, which they said is paid to Indian medical interns in Telangana. They alleged that FMGs received only ₹5,000 a month at some government medical colleges, while several others had not been paid for months despite reporting for internship duties.

Manikanta, who is currently pursuing his internship at a medical college in Khammam, said he had completed his medical education in Ukraine and returned to India last year. After qualifying in the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) and completing the counselling process, he was allotted a college in Khammam, where he began his internship in January. “It has been about 10 months since I started my internship, but we have not received a stipend for any month so far,” he said.