A faculty member at All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS) had “showed his covert & implicit social bias” by using words like “mind your level” with a senior resident doctor, & an “internal committee did not conduct the inquiry with fairness & pressured the woman to withdraw her complaint”.
These are the findings of an AIIMS SC-ST Cell committee that probed complaints of “caste- & gender-based” remarks by a senior resident doctor at AIIMS against a faculty member.
The committee submitted its 17-page report to AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria on June 24, recommending “appropriate administrative/legal action against the accused”, who is with the hospital’s Centre for Dental Education & Research (CDER).
“Although the accused didn’t explicitly use gender or caste-based remarks against the victim, but he did use words like ‘billi’, ‘mind your level’, etc which are derogatory, humiliating & demeaning, more so to a lady & also to undermine her professional capabilities, & showed his covert & implicit social bias towards the victim,” the report, accessed by the news agency, notes.
The committee was headed by Dr K K Verma, Professor, dermatology & venereology, at AIIMS. S K Panda, Deputy Director (Administration), AIIMS, said they had begun action on the report.
He told the news agency that “The committee has recommended certain steps & those are being taken. We are going through the due process of taking disciplinary action, so we are issuing show-cause notices".
On April 17, the senior resident doctor had been found unconscious in her hostel room after taking an overdose of her medication. In an FIR on the matter, dealing specifically with an incident on March 16, she said, “For two years, the faculty member has been discriminating against me… I complained to the CDER chief & every time she stopped me from giving a written complaint.”
The SC-ST Cell report notes that “there is sufficient evidence to show that inappropriate remarks were made by the accused… this has been accepted by the accused & further reinforced by the witnesses”.
On the role of the internal committee set up by the CDER, the report says, “(It) did not conduct the inquiry with fairness, respect & dignity & pressurised her (the woman) to withdraw her complaint cr, further creating a sense of denial of justice to a lady doctor belonging to marginalised section of the society… repeated misconduct, humiliation & non-redressal of her grievances created a sense of insecurity & denial of justice led her to a state of despair & hopelessness which probably forced her to take the extreme step of consuming toxic doses of antidepressants on 17.04.2020.”
The report also quotes some junior residents as testifying that “the accused objected to their interactions with the victim in professional matters in an attempt to isolate her”.
The report states that the Resident Doctors’ Association had approached the AIIMS Director regarding the alleged harassment, on March 22.
The committee recorded statements of the senior resident doctor, the faculty member, as well as doctors, nurses & staff members who were present when the alleged March 16 incident happened.
It questioned the testimonies of a junior resident doctor & a staffer, saying they had “made statements which were fabricated, evidently misleading & not corroborated by the statements of other witnesses… with an intention to mislead (the) committee & the inquiry to shift onus of the incident on to the victim & shield the accused”.
The committee made six recommendations, including “appropriate administrative/legal action against the accused” & “appropriate action as per rules against the junior resident & the staffer for intentionally giving false information”.
The committee also recommended that both the accused & victim “may be provided psychological support to prevent such incidents in the future”, & that an “advisory be issued to chief of CDER to address the grievances of all staff in a timely & effective manner, especially those belonging to vulnerable sections of the society as per the Constitution & guidelines of the government of India”.
In her FIR, the resident doctor had alleged that on March 16, the faculty member had used “uncivilised language & casteist slurs towards me in front of patients & their attendants”. She also claimed that he “violently removed her from (a) seat” & said, “Tu SC hai, apne level mein reh (You are a Scheduled Caste, stay within your limits).” She alleged she was later summoned by the CDER chief, who told her she should not “misbehave with a faculty member”.
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