AIIMS Lady Doctor Attempts Suicide Over Casteist, Sexist Harassment

The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) of the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) wrote a letter to the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday against caste and gender-based harassment and the inaction of the administration on the matter.

A dental surgeon at AIIMS, Delhi attempted suicide alleging gender and caste-based harassment by senior faculty members. The woman doctor is in a critical condition in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit at present.

"We would like to bring to your kind notice a serious event of caste and gender based discrimination of a Senior Resident of CDER, AIIMS. The Resident has made repeated appeals to the Department, the Director and also has been represented through RDA, AIIMS to the administration," the letter read, urging the minister's intervention in the incident.

"Despite multiple letters (on three different dates), there has been no adequate action to address this issue of grave concern and eventually, leading the Resident to the edge, making her take the drastic step to end her life after losing the hope of justice in this prestigious institute," it read.

The letter also mentioned that the doctor had written to the Women's Grievance Cell and SC-ST Welfare Cell of AIIMS as well as the National SC-ST Commission. However, no action was taken into the matter.

"The reluctant behaviour of the administration and the institute committee led the resident to take such an extreme step of inflicting self-harm. Therefore, we appeal to the administration and the ministries concerned to expedite the process and address this injustice at the earliest," the letter read.

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