Payal Tadvi’s suicide highlights, once again, discrimination in medical institutions | The Indian Express

Payal Tadvi’s suicide highlights, once again, discrimination in medical institutions | The Indian Express

Written by Shah Alam Khan |Updated: May 29, 2019 9:19:54 am

The writer is professor, department of orthopaedics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The views expressed are personal.

Payal Tadvi’s suicide highlights, once again, discrimination in medical institutions

Social institutions and systems have rotted under the burden of caste. Educational institutions have been the preserves of the upper caste and the rich.

Protest and demonstration in front of Nair hospital in Mumbai central against the death of Medical student Dr.Payal Tadvi (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)

In his victory speech at the BJP headquarters following the enormous Lok Sabha mandate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there are only two castes in India now — the poor and those who will alleviate poverty. Even before the reverberations of his words died down, a young doctor from Mumbai, Payal Tadvi of the BYL Nair Hospital committed suicide. She was allegedly facing persistent caste-based harassment from her seniors at the hospital. Tadvi had taken admission in the MD gynaecology course in May 2018 through the caste-based quota. Despite what the PM says, caste continues to be the horrific reality of Indian society.