Dr. Payal Tadvi: Another life snuffed out by Caste Hindus and Lack of Institutional mechanisms

Dr Payal Tadvi, a second-year PG student of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai, committed suicide on May 22, 2019 by hanging herself in her hostel room, hours after she was scolded in the operation theatre in front of other staff and patients, and was seen crying as she left. Payal belonged to the Muslim Tadvi Bhil community* and had been harassed and abused for her caste by three caste-Hindu seniors at her college, Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mahere and Ankita Khandelwal for months. Talking about her in a whatsapp group, as well as abusing her in person, they constantly obstructed her work and caused severe distress to her because they felt she did not deserve to be a doctor, based on her caste, as well as the fact that she had availed of reservation. According to family members of Dr Payal, they said things such as, “Payal is disgusting“, “You people are adivasis, your job is to do cleaning, you go and do that“, “We will not let you study, we will not let you go to the operation table”, “You do not deserve to be a doctor, you people can’t become doctors, it is our work“, and so on.

Payal told her husband about the harassment first in 2018, and then to her friend as well (attached below Annexure 1). Although initially worried about filing a complaint as it would lead to more torture, Payal’s mother filed a complaint to the Head of Department on the 10th of May (attached below Annexure 2). After that, her husband filed a verbal complaint with the Unit head, Dr. Ching Ling. However, the complaint was disclosed to the seniors, leading to increasing abuse and harassment, making it clear that the Unit head had no regard for Payal’s wellbeing and that the seniors had her support. While the accused were arrested on 29th May, a post mortem report on the 30th of May showed bruise marks on her neck and arms, suggesting the possibility of murder. Further, the SC/ST commission found faults in the police investigation, where the case was filed under a much older act, leading to a much shorter punishment.

While the investigation is still going on, there is no doubt about the fact that Dr Payal was murdered- perhaps physically by the three seniors, but also by the constant abuse, and the casteist framework of her institution, where people guilty of torture and harassment faced no accountability because of their caste. Many people have called it many things- ragging, bullying, and so on, in order to dilute the nature of the crime. In fact, the accused, in a letter to the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (attached below Annexure 3), claimed that Payal had simply not been able to take the work pressure and that they could never be guilty of caste prejudice, without once trying to provide any evidence other than appealing to their social circle. But Dr Payal, like many others, was abused, harassed, tortured, and murdered because of her caste, and there were absolutely no institutional mechanisms to protect her. The Topiwala National Medical College did not have an SC/ST cell to deal with the issues of and protect students who faced casteism as recommended by the UGC, and the only relevant body which could help Payal was an ‘Anti Ragging Committee’. It is this complete negligence of caste discrimination that shows how little concern the institution had for its SC/ST students.

Although this is the first time in such a case that the police have not only registered the complaint but also arrested the accused, and further an autopsy report has shown signs of murder, Dr Payal is just one of many dalit and adivasi students across the country who are facing harassment and discrimination every day and are pushed closer to giving up their lives by similarly casteist, unaccountable, and complicit institutions, professors, and students. Dr Payal’s abusers’ hatred for her came from the fact that she had availed of reservation to come to the college. For them she was not deserving or meritorious enough and was simply taking over seats meant for ‘their people’. However, what they and many others in the country don’t understand, is that the reservation policy does not take seats from a ‘deserving’ section and give it to undeserving students. It is aimed at tackling the systematic disadvantage faced by students like Dr Payal at every level of their education. It is this policy that is meant to protect the very right of students like Dr Payal to study without harassment and discrimination.

While we demand justice against Payal’s abusers, what is also important is to demand structural changes that can help all others who are put in the same position as she was. First, there is the need to address the misunderstandings about reservations harbored by most people in the country, and encouraged by those in power. Why is it that every time the topic of reservations is brought up, someone brings up as an argument that they know an SC person who is extremely rich? It is important to understand the purpose of reservations, and how they are not designed to tackle poverty, but rather to ensure representation and equality of opportunity. It is important that all students, professionals, and government representatives are made aware of the need for reservations and for this they must be required to go through compulsory sensitization.

For if these students, studying to become doctors soon, treat a fellow Adivasi student in this manner, how can we say that they are deserving of becoming doctors? One cannot help but wonder if tomorrow they will treat their SC/ST patients with this kind of prejudice as well. It is then the hospital and the medical college’s responsibility, to ensure that doctors who will be serving patients from all castes, must undergo an education and sensitization on caste as well, before they are allowed to start practicing. The same must be ensured for all professionals whose service is involved in providing basic civic rights, such as lawyers, teachers, police, government officials, and so on.

Finally, merely providing reservation for SC/ST students are not enough, and students availing of reservations must be recognized as being vulnerable in an environment of casteism, and harassment that is clearly motivated by casteism cannot be adequately dealt with under the framework of ‘ragging’. While the UGC ‘encourages’ the establishment of SC/ST cells in colleges, it does not outline how colleges will be held accountable if they do not follow it. Even other bodies that are required to be set up, for instance, Internal Complaints Committees, do not exist in many universities, including Payal’s. How can the UGC expect all universities to have SC/ST cells without any framework of accountability? Such cells must be compulsorily set up in all universities and their working reviewed regularly and stringently to ensure that the needs of all SC/ST students are met, and that any harassment they face is dealt with promptly. Further, the working of such cells cannot be limited to responding to cases of harassment but should rather proactively work at making the university more inclusive for its SC/ST students, through regular sensitization of other students, faculty, and staff, reviewing classroom practices and accessibility of course material, reviewing campus rules regarding food and accommodation, and so on. These bodies in doing so must place the onus of inclusivity on the institution and its upper-caste students, rather than offering “orientation” or “etiquette classes” to SC/ST students as has been done in the past in order to put the burden of “fitting in” on the dalit or adivasi student.

* The Tadvi Bhils are an Adivasi community who live in parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. They belong to a larger Bhil community, and are listed as a Scheduled Tribe. Many parts of the community converted to Islam, and are now known as the Muslim Tadvi Bhils. Unlike Scheduled Castes who only receive reservations if they are Hindus, Scheduled Tribes can convert to any religion and still be recognized as a protected community. Although eligible for reservations, Muslim STs find it more difficult to avail of reservation due to the misconception that only Hindus are eligible for them, and their names are often omitted.

The author Damayanti is a third-year B.A. student of Sociology in Pune. Email: [email protected]

This article will be updated as and when we receive more updates about the case.