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Maharashtra: Female doctor commits suicide over racial slurs from seniors

WION
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaWritten By: Nagen SinghUpdated: May 27, 2019, 07:10 PM IST
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Representative Image. Photograph:(Others)

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Payal Tadvi’s body was found hanging in the doctor’s hostel where she stayed as a trainee resident doctor. It is being alleged by the girl’s family that Payal was constantly being harassed with casteist slurs by her senior colleagues.

A 26-year-old female doctor allegedly committed suicide on May 22 in the premises of a government-run hospital in India’s Western State of Maharashtra. 

Payal Tadvi’s body was found hanging in the doctor’s hostel where she stayed as a trainee resident doctor. It is being alleged by the girl’s family that Payal was constantly being harassed with casteist slurs by her senior colleagues.

Following the death of the tribal doctor, the family and the tribal welfare societies have decided to protest near the Nair hospital in Mumbai Central, against the hospital administration and slow pace of investigation by police in this case. However, police has booked three of Payal’s colleagues who allegedly harassed her for being a tribal woman.

Mother of the victim, Abeda Tadvi claims that her daughter’s complaints were ignored by the hospital administration and the lecturers of the Topiwala national medical college.

Payal was pursuing her post-graduation course in gynaecology at the Topiwala National Medical College, which is attached to the BYL Nair hospital. Her family informs that in December 2018, she informed them about the relentless harassment by her seniors. Payal’s husband Dr Salman also complained to the department head about the harassment, however, no strict action was taken. Payal who ended her life on May 22 was the first from her family to pursue a course in medicine.

After the family’s allegations, the Maharashtra police has booked Dr Hema Ahuja, Dr Bhakti Mehar, and Dr Ankita Khandelwal for abetment to suicide and under sections of the Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act and the Prevention of Atrocities Act. Tadvi had time and again spoken about the harassment to her parents and husband.

In December 2018, her mother gave a written complaint about the three doctors to the head of the department, but the Dean of the college refuses to receive such a letter from the mother or the deceased.