Anti-ragging committees in Mumbai colleges to be upgraded

Dr Payal Tadvi was allegedly harassed by her seniors at the Nair hospital

The BMC standing committee has approved civic chief Praveen Pardeshi's decision to strengthen anti-ragging panels in city medical colleges. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has also decided to set up similar committees across all civic-run hospitals, including peripheral hospitals to avoid such unfortunate incidents in the future. This comes after the suicide of Dr Payal Tadvi, who hanged herself in her hostel room on May 22.

While the BMC is investigating into the suicide of Dr Tadvi over alleged caste-based harassment in Nair hospital. Yashvant Jadhav, BMC's standing committee president, said, "We need to provide a platform to doctors at all BMC-run hospitals to come out at any time if they face such harassment. We thus need to put the anti-ragging committee in place at all hospitals. This includes peripheral hospitals."

It has also been decided to upgrade all existing anti-ragging committees in the current structure. "The medical colleges have to ensure that all the anti-ragging committees are functioning properly and taking adequate steps to ensure safety of students," Jadhav added.

Report submitted to MUHS

The accused doctors in Dr. Tadvi's case - Dr. Hema Ahuja, Dr. Bhakti Mehare, and Dr. Ankita Khandelwal - have been held in judicial custody until June 10. They were booked for abetment to suicide under the Indian Penal Code and certain sections of the Ragging Act and the Atrocities Act.

The anti-ragging committee formed at the college has found prima facie evidence that Dr. Tadvi faced casteist slurs and a report has been submitted to Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) for further investigation. A team of doctors including Dr. Prakash Wakode, deputy director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), Dr. Bachi Hathiram, head of department, ENT, BYL Nair Hospital and Dr. Ajay Chandanwale, dean, JJ Hospital are looking into it.

An aspiring surgeon

Dr. Tadvi, a native of Jalgaon, had completed her MBBS from Miraj Government Medical College and had served as a medical officer at a Primary Healthcare Centre in Jalgaon. She was the only one from her tribal community in the village to pursue MBBS and was aspiring to become MD Gynaecology.

22 May
The day Dr. Tadvi committed suicide

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