Following rise in complaints regarding gender inequality at workplace, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has decided to set up a three-member committee to address the issue. The committee will start working from September onwards.
A meeting was convened last week with the Director of AIIMS, RC Deka, and it was unanimously decided that a committee will be set up to address the issue of gender discrimination.The committee will hear the grievances and forward them to the director as well as the medical superintendent. The committee members will also discuss the incident with the victim and suggest ways on how to deal with the issue.
In 2010, an Associate Professor of laboratory Medicine filed a complaint with the AIIMS Chief Vigilance Officer against a male doctor of the same department. "He (the doctor) misbehaved with me in a way that it crossed all limits," she had said. The complainant even alleged that he used objectionable language at the OPD in front of all patients, which really humiliated her. Although she took the matter with the Chief Vigilance Officer, AIIMS had not taken any action. She hopes that after the formation of the committee, the matter will be addressed.
Similarly, in 2010, a senior scientist of the Forensic Medicine Department complained to the Chief Vigilance Officer against a derogatory remark made by another senior doctor. Despite intimating the matter with the Sexual Assault Committee of AIIMS as well as the Director of the institution, nothing has been done as yet to resolve it. Sources said till now two officials against whom complaints were registered have been suspended from AIIMS. Two more complaints, including alleged molestation of an eight-year-old patient by a doctor of the Neurosurgery Department, have not been resolved yet. Dr DK Sharma, Medical Superintendent of the hospital said, "We have just started working on the modalities of the committee and once the committee is formed it will look after the gender discrimination issue."