Jolted into action after the suicide of a medical student who committed suicide after allegedly facing caste-based discrimination at the hands of her seniors, the state government is looking at strengthening the law which proscribes ragging.
Replying to a calling attention motion on Tuesday, medical education minister Girish Mahajan said they were examining if the anti-ragging laws needed to be amended and made more stringent. The state has passed the Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1999, to prevent ragging and harassment of students in educational institutions, making this offence punishable with imprisonment of up to two years and/or penalty up to Rs 10,000.
Last month, Dr Payal Tadvi, a second-year post-graduate student of the TN Topiwala National Medical College, had committed suicide in her hostel room. Tadvi, who belonged to the tribal Tadvi Bhil community and hailed from Jalgaon, allegedly faced harassment and caste discrimination by three seniors, who have been arrested.
"A law (to tackle this) exists... but it is unfortunate that despite this, people are breaking the rules," said Mahajan, adding that it was unfortunate that a post-graduate student of medicine had been forced to commit suicide. A five-member committee has been formed for the purpose and some members were dropped and new ones taken in after objections from the Tadvi family.
"Action will be taken after they submit their report. The government is doing everything possible," said Mahajan.
After legislators questioned if Tadvi was indeed murdered by the three accused, as it was alleged, minister of state for home Dr Ranjit Patil said he had gone through the post-mortem report, and the injuries like minor abrasion to the chest and legs, seemed to be post-mortem injuries (sustained after death) and not antemortem.
Mahajan said before her suicide, Payal and her mother had submitted a written complaint to the inward section in the dean's office about the harassment. However, they had withdrawn it soon afterwards. Patil said the police would investigate if they had been pressurised to do so.
Patil, however, admitted that even before the written complaint, the deceased had complained verbally about her harassment. He added that the head of the gynaecology department had been transferred and the unit head had been suspended. He added that the medical college had an equal opportunities cell as had been mandated by the UGC norms.
A Lesson From Tadvi Suicide Case
Replying to a calling attention motion on Tuesday, medical education minister Girish Mahajan said they were examining if anti-ragging laws needs to be amended and made more stringent and steps would be taken to ensure such incidents do not happen in future
