In a decisive move to prevent disruptions in healthcare services, the Odisha government has imposed the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) on doctors and other medical staff, prohibiting any form of strikes or work cessation for the next six months.
The directive, issued by the Home Department, comes amid an intensifying agitation by government doctors demanding fulfilment of their 10-point charter, including salary revisions aligned with central government scales, filling of vacant posts, and cadre restructuring.
The order explicitly bans strikes by doctors, nursing officers, pharmacy officers, paramedics, technicians, Class-III and Class-IV employees, as well as contractual staff in all government-run and grant-in-aid health institutions. This includes district headquarters hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals, area hospitals, community health centers, primary health centers, municipal hospitals, medical colleges, autonomous institutions like the Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre (AHRCC) and Regional Spinal Injury Centre, along with jail and police hospitals.
The government cited public interest and the need to maintain uninterrupted healthcare delivery as the rationale behind the invocation of the Odisha Essential Services (Maintenance) Act, 1988 (Odisha Act 9 of 1992), under sub-section (1) of Section 3 read with Section 2.
The ESMA imposition follows a series of protests by the Odisha Medical Services Association (OMSA), which escalated on January 5 with a two-hour daily shutdown of outpatient department (OPD) services from 9 AM to 11 AM across state-run hospitals. The agitation, which began symbolically with a one-hour OPD boycott on December 26, 2025, stems from longstanding grievances.
OMSA highlights that out of 15,774 approved doctor positions in the state, only around 6,000 are filled, leading to excessive workloads. Other demands include proportional cadre restructuring across all grades and improved working conditions to enhance public health services.
Patients have borne the brunt of the protests, with reports of long waits and hardships, particularly for those travelling from remote areas during the winter season. Media coverage has spotlighted instances of registered patients enduring hours of delay due to OPD closures, exacerbating frustrations in an already strained healthcare system.
Reacting sharply to the ESMA order, OMSA President Dr. Kishore Chandra Mishra labeled it as a “repressive policy” and a sign of the government’s intolerance. “This is an attempt to suppress our legitimate demands without addressing the root issues,” Mishra stated, adding that the association would convene to decide on further steps. Prior discussions with the government, including the formation of an inter-departmental committee to review the demands, have yielded no concrete progress, according to OMSA. Health Minister Mukesh Mahaling has appealed to doctors to resume duties, assuring that the government is sympathetically considering their demands and that the committee is actively examining them.
This is not the first time ESMA has been invoked in Odisha’s health sector; similar measures were taken in August 2024 to prevent strikes by nurses and paramedics amid nationwide protests over a doctor’s rape-murder case in Kolkata, and in December 2023 for NHM workers. The current order remains in force for six months from January 6, 2026, with strict enforcement directed to health authorities, police, and district magistrates.
As tensions rise, stakeholders from both sides urge dialogue to resolve the impasse without further impacting public health services.
