Bigotry within medical institutions and among members of the fraternity

Indian doctors and IMA: *No response* (maddening silence)

Situation 3: Senior doctors in Chattisgarh get arrested on Maoist charges for trying to help poor people.

Indian doctors and IMA: *No response* (maddening silence)

Situation 4: Doctors prescribing broad-spectrum antibiotics like chocolates (adding fuel to the AMR fire), trying to cover up medication/prescribing errors, refraining from reporting SAEs and ADRs and still writing brand names instead of generic names despite the mandate.

Indian doctors and IMA: *No response* (maddening silence)

Situation 5: A Savarna intern from a very privileged background gets unfairly hit (for no fault of his) by a mob under unfortunate circumstances.

Indian doctors and IMA: lose their shit and organize a nationwide strike.

Bigotry within medical Conclusion:

“We all don’t mind if we do go wrong somewhere. Don’t mind our senior members of the medical fraternity making hell lives of our younger colleagues. We don’t mind if our colleagues jailed or killed for serving the less privileged. Don’t mind bigoted discriminating practices in our institutions. We don’t mind if people die for our mistakes or ignorance. But, we won’t tolerate when outsiders or commoners point fingers at us. We are very superior to the ‘commoners’ because we studied medicine for several years and they have no right to point fingers at us. We must retain the topmost position in power-structures.”

Surprisingly most media channels covering doctor’s strike and suppressed death of 100 children in bihar which most brutal incident to happen after Oxygen cylinder scandal of UP. They have heavily invested their time in this anti-bengal propaganda as if children’s death isn’t not national concern. What a shame.

Are the doctors really protesting to express solidarity with their fellow doctor who was attacked? Or they protesting because they worried about their position in the power-structure? If the former is the case, I wonder, why only now? Over the past year alone, many doctors from marginalised communities and many doctors who volunteered to help the poor in places that were overlooked conveniently by the government fell victim to persecution by the government, crony capitalism, senior members of the medical fraternity and systemic discrimination on the basis of caste and religion. Where were these doctors (who are sitting on high horses today) when all these things were happening? But, who were they trying to protect by keeping mum? Also, they knew what was happening.

What is lacking?

But, they have not created a safe space for their own colleagues who lack their privilege. They lack class-consciousness. Also, they lack consciousness of their privilege. A movement must be pro-people. Not anti-people. IMA is still silent on all those issues. After all, they don’t want to be exposed. 90% of the healthcare professionals belong to their privilege

The current nationwide strike will only be ethically justified, morally impactful and pro-people if the protestors and proponents of the movement stand in solidarity with Dr. Payal Tadvi and Dr. Kafeel Khan alongside Dr. Paribaha Mukherjee. So, it’s time to be brave for a change and challenge the discriminative practices and mindset that propagates bigotry within medical institutions and among members of the fraternity. Not to mention, it is important to call out malpractices by colleagues that have resulted in serious consequences. Moreover, there are no lesser human beings among doctors and patients.