This year has been about a major outing of serial sexual predators in many fields, with the exposure of bigwigs like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey in the film industry and even people from politics were dragged into the mire of allegations. The #metoo movement made headlines.

The Indian medical system too has its share of salacious tendencies, when doctors and other professionals in major hospitals have been accused of inappropriate conduct by colleagues, administrators and patients. We shed light on a few such serious and spectacular allegations which surfaced this year:

Harassment of a medical student in Villupuram

A medical intern filed a sexual harassment complaint against an assistant professor at the government Villupuram medical college and hospital in a complaint submitted on November 2, 2017. The hospital formed a committee which investigated the matter and submitted it to the government but found it to be inconclusive. The government noted that it had decided to wait for an inquiry by the Villupuram district police, instead of relying on an internal report which may be influenced

The student filed a complaint at the institution, for harassment during her work, which included deliberate touch and something which she said was witnessed or was known to nearly 32 other batchmates, who attached their signatures to the complaint. While the hospital remained tight-lipped about the allegations, the professor has been shifted to another unit.

A few days later, the complainant noted that there were inordinate delays in completing a preliminary investigation for continuing the legal process and slammed the police for failing to complete the investigation in a timely manner.

Nurse from Mehsana hospital complained of harassment 

Employees of the hospital, too are not immune to these advances. A young nurse in Mehsana’s Lion Hospital accused a doctor of making sexual advances towards her in March earlier this year. She alleged that he had been making sexual advances towards her for the past five months because of which had suffered depression and had tried to commit suicide. after having been encouraged by the other staff and some of her friends she mustered up the courage to file a complaint against the offending doctor. The hospital, in the meanwhile, reported that they dealt with these cases seriously and that they would conduct an investigation.

Medical student harassed at Cuttack Medical College

Three teachers of a state-run medical college and hospital were booked by the police on the charge of sexual assault and harassment of a student from Uttarakhand. Police registered a case against a senior resident, an associate professor and the head of the department of the dental wing of the Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.

The second-year PG student lodged a written complaint with the police against the three teachers. In a shocking complaint, she noted that she had been harassed for several days by the resident and the professor and that she had tried to complain to the Head of the Department, who allegedly turned a blind eye to her complaints. The police, however, immediately registered an FIR, and while the department was still refuting the charges, and that she was fabricating them since the hospital had asked her to work a night shift. On the other hand, the police noted that she had refused to undergo a medical examination.

Harassment of a woman medical officer a Babu Jagjivan Ram hospital

A senior woman medical officer(MO) at a hospital in northwest Delhi has accused the medical superintendent of sexual harassment. The woman filed a complaint with the Delhi police in September. The matter was reported from Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital and the management of the hospital had been notified of the complaint in the first week of September 2017.

The MO complained that the accused used to call her inside his room and have vulgar conversations which made her uncomfortable and had on more than one occasion tried to touch her inappropriately. The accused surreptitiously videographed one of her conversations and submitted it as evidence. The accused has had a history of sexual harassment. He had allegedly harassed a staffer at another hospital earlier, where he was let off due to a lack of evidence and had also made overtures to a data entry operator at Bhagwan Mahavir hospital, after which he had allegedly been transferred to the Jagjivan Ram hospital. The doctor was suspended by the Delhi Government after the allegations surfaced.

Harassment allegations by a nurse in an Erode Hospital

A staff nurse of the hospital had filed a petition alleging sexual harassment by the dean of the IRT Perundurai Medical College and Hospital situated in Erode. The Madras High Court today directed the Institute of Road Transport (IRT) at Taramani to set up an independent committee to probe the allegations of sexual harassment against the dean of IRT Perundurai Medical College and Hospital in Erode district.

The Madras High Court then directed the formation of an independent committee under Section 4 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and ordered a free and fair inquiry. The petitioner had been working at the hospital since 1996.

According to the complainant, the accused medico used to harass her under the guise of ward visits to visit patients, and this continued for many months, after which she finally sought to bring the matter to the attention of senior management. The High Court also raised the question of why no action had been taken despite the complaint having been filed earlier in 2017.

A doctor convicted of sexual harassment in the U.S. returns for practice to India

In another revealing incident, it was shown that India has extremely lax background checks for Indian-origin doctors arriving from foreign countries to practice back at home. Dr. Narendra Gupta, who had been charged for a felony in the U.S. for allegedly conducting unwarranted breast exams and for inappropriately touching a woman during pelvic exams had begun practising in India after moving back to India. He pleaded guilty to a few counts after being convicted and when he faced a prison sentence. He had to surrender his medical license and was disallowed from practising in the United States. The hospitals he was employed in declined to divulge details regarding how they had vetted his application and had only replied saying they were investigating the matter.

Overall, these cases illustrate that like most systems, the Indian medical system constitutes people who abuse their positions of power. The system needs to improve mechanisms for redressal.