NO ENTRY to dalits : Indian Medical Association

NO ENTRY to dalits : Indian Medical Association

Caste-divide rocks doctors and medical association

CHENNAI: Caste difference among doctors has created a divide within the Indian Medical Association (IMA) in Tamil Nadu. Indeed, the IMA, Tamil Nadu, is facing problems, particularly casteist, for sometime now.

Unfortunately, Salem district IMA chairperson Dr Chellamal (a caste Hindu) and State Quack’s Eradication Committee chairman Dr Bharatidasan (a Dalit) let the cat out of the bag by rubbing shoulders and publicly echoing conflicting opinions that climaxed with the latter being debarred for antibranch activities.

Dr Bharatidasan accused Dr Chellamal and a few other caste Hindus in IMA of purportedly eclipsing Dalit doctor’s professional prospects and their rise in IMA.

More than 100 Dalit doctors remain mute fearing the outcome of the vast political and economic influence wielded by Dr Chellamal and associates, Bharatidasan said.

IMA state president Dr Mohan Das admitted to the two parties moving IMA Central Working Committee, bypassing the state body, and not co-operating with the state IMA for an amicable settlement.

Besides, a few senior doctors in Salem IMA have also objected to casteist tendencies during association meeting.

Another Dalit doctor, on condition of anonymity, said the chairperson along with former Tamil Nadu Gover nment Doctors’ Association president Dr Prakasham tried to prevent the election of a Dalit to the post of vice-president of the state IMA for 2008-09 by supporting an ineligible candidate from Erode.

Dr Chellamal refuted any caste-based divide in Salem IMA and affirmed that the doctor was debarred last June for refusing to clarify and tender an apology for bringing disrepute to the association.

Many Dalit doctors elsewhere in TN said the condition was no different in other districts and not many had brought the issue to light, as Bharatidasan did.

Either Dalit doctors would be indirectly prevented from contesting for the IMA or insufficiently supported even after election, a Caste Hindu doctor said.

Currently, no Dalit doctor holds any office in the IMA, doctors noted and added that repeated efforts to support Dalit doctors had failed.

Doctor’s Association for Social Justice (DASE) president Dr Ravindarnath reiterated that contempt for Dalits was commonplace and the attitude was imbibed at the stage of medicos.

Dalit doctors were largely submissive to discrimination as most nursing homes or hospitals were run by the caste Hindus, another doctor stated.K Karthikeyan, March 9 2008, New Ind Press.