Left organisations have called are going to protest in Mumbai on Monday, May 27 following Dr Payal Tadvi’s suicide due to casteist harassment of her seniors at the Nair hospital.
Payal Salman Tadvi, a 26-year-old doctor, belonging to a tribal community, committed suicide on by hanging herself at the hostel of the government-run BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai on May 22 after facing casteist slurs from her seniors.
Three of Tadvi’s senior colleagues — Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mahere and Ankita Khandelwal — allegedly used to harass her with casteist remarks, police said. They reportedly added that the accused doctors also used to defame Payal on WhatsApp groups of students. Tadvi, who hails from the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, had joined the PG course in gynaecology at the Topiwala National Medical College, which is attached to the BYL Nair hospital on May 1, 2018. In December 2018, she had informed her family about the harassment by her seniors.
Ashok Dhawale, the president of the All India Kisan Sabha said on Tuesday that left organisations — the Student Federation of India (SFI), the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) and the Jati Anta Sangharsh Samiti — will hold a protest outside Nair hospital at 4 pm on Monday.
On the issue of the tragic institutional murder of Payal Tadvi, the SFI in Maharashtra has given a statewide protest call for today, May 27. In Mumbai, SFI-DYFI-AIDWA-Jati Anta Sangharsh Samiti will hold an angry protest outside Nair Hospital at 4 pm today. https://t.co/b7Uzw7ITEx
— Dr. Ashok Dhawale (@DrAshokDhawale) May 27, 2019
Tadvi’s suicide has sparked outrage against deep-rooted casteism and discrimination against dalits, bahujans and adivasis in Indian institutions. The incident is similar to that of Rohith Vemula — a dalit PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad — who killed himself in 2016 following similar harassment from the university administration.