As many as 10 students have been under the scanner of the anti-ragging committee of HBT Medical College attached to the civic-run Cooper Hospital in Vile Parle in 2016 and 2018, but no complaint has been reported to the police, a Right to Information query has revealed.
The hospital’s newly-appointed dean, Dr. Pinakin Gujjar, said there have been no complaints since he took over. “I am not aware of complaints in the past,” he said, adding he was strictly against any kind of workplace harassment and ragging. “Any complaint during my tenure will be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly,” he said.
Of the 10 students, eight had faced suspension from the hostel but there was no dismissal or penalty. There is no clarity on the number of cases these students were involved in. The RTI also revealed that the hospital’s anti-ragging committee held 11 meetings during this period.
The suicide of Dr. Payal Tadvi, a second-year resident doctor from Nair Hospital, has put in sharp focus complaints of ragging in medical colleges and the way the authorities have handled them. “The RTI response I have received shows the authorities have been ignorant,” said RTI activist Shakeel Shaikh, who has sent similar queries to all medical colleges. His earlier RTI query revealed that Nair Hospital had received four ragging complaints before Dr. Tadvi’s death, in which at least eight students faced suspension from the hostel. “However, in these cases too, the police was not informed,” he said.
The Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1999 calls for investigation of complaints at the institution level. The report of the inquiry is sent to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, which appoints a committee to look into the report and decide the course of action and punishment. The University Grants Commission guidelines, however, make it mandatory to file a first information report in all ragging complaints.
