Dr. Payal Tadvi from the Adivasi Tadvi Bhil community are a Scheduled Tribe4(ST), she was a post-graduate medical student studying gynaecology, she was found in her room on May 22nd hanging in her room at the Nair Hospital hostel room.

For months she was harassed and bullied by three college seniors who would use casteist slurs and humiliate her for belonging to a backward caste they would throw her belongings away and clean there dirty feet in her bed.

In December 2018, Payal told her parents about the ordeal she was going through at the hospital, her parents wrote a complaint to the head of the department but nothing was done to fix the situation, another letter was sent just a few weeks before her death on May 10th but even then the hospital took no action.

On May 21st Payal was out with friends for dinner and posted pictures online, this made the three accused very angry and threatened her that she would be banned from the operation theater and studies because she was out with friends.

The next day after performing two surgeries that day she called her parents and her husband who is also a medical professional that she was very depressed. A few hours later she had killed herself.

The three women accused of this were, Dr. Hema Ahuja, Dr. Bhakti Mehar and Dr. Ankita Khandelwa, they released a letter where they profess their innocence, claiming a high workload and long hours caused her to kill herself saying everyone is ragged and ragging is always done.

All three were missing since the 22nd but since the 29th all 3 have been arrested and the family of Payal have asked for swift and strict action against the girls. So to send a message that this behavior is not right and hope it will not happen again.

Tags

• Suicide
• Doctor
• Caste
• Scheduled Tribe

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