India's hospital strikes continue

Medical staff angry at plans to boost opportunities for people born into lower castes.

The Indian prime minister has set up a panel of senior ministers to resolve the issue.

Under the plans, half of state-funded professional college places would go to lower caste students.

The move has drawn fire from medical students as well as business leaders and teachers who say it will lead to a drop of standards.

The strike has affected services in state-run hospitals with many patients being turned away and forced to opt for more expensive treatment at private hospitals.

'Expediency'

Demonstrations which began in the capital, Delhi, have spread to the state of Punjab in the north, Gujarat and Maharashtra in the west and Orissa in the east.

At the main teaching hospital in Delhi, 100 students have been on hunger strike for three days, with some saying they are prepared to fast until death.

The Congress party-led government says that nearly 50% of places in state-funded professional colleges should go to lower or backward castes, as they are called in India.

But critics complain it is an act of political expediency as much as social engineering, he says.

The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says the government is unlikely to back down since the move has the support of traditionally disadvantaged low-caste communities who are large in number and politically influential.

A team of senior cabinet ministers is now looking at ways to resolve the issue - one possibility is increasing the number of places in professional colleges to match the increased affirmative action quota.

Despite laws banning discrimination, India's lower castes remain at the bottom of society and are poorly represented in major professions.

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