Call to colleges to take urgent action
Two health networks on Tuesday called on medical education institutions to take steps to protect their students from caste-based discrimination that allegedly led a young doctor to commit suicide in Mumbai on May 22.
The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) and the Medico Friends Circle (MFC) have labelled the suicide of Payal Tadvi, a doctor from an Adivasi community pursuing postgraduate studies in gynaecology at the Topiwala National Medical College, Mumbai, as “institutional murder”.
“We demand urgent action against the caste oppression and humiliation by upper caste senior doctors which forced Dr Payal to commit suicide,” the JSA and MFC said in a statement.
The JSA and the MFC, networks of physicians, public health specialists and health activists, said “the rampant ingrained casteism and impunity in educational institutions must be recognised and stopped”.
Family members have said Payal, who was a second-year resident doctor in the obstetrics and gynaecology department, had experienced harassment and discrimination from fellow doctors who had also disallowed her from performing operations or conducting deliveries.
Please click here to read more.