The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) of the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) wrote to to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday against alleged inaction by the administration on complaints of caste and gender-based harassment.

A dental surgeon at AIIMS, Delhi attempted suicide allegedly due to gender and caste-based harassment by senior faculty members. The woman doctor, who tried to kill herself on Friday, is in a critical condition in the hospital's ICU currently.

"We would like to bring to your kind notice a serious event of caste and gender based discrimination of a Senior Resident of CDER, AIIMS. The Resident has made repeated appeals to the Department, the Director and also has been represented through RDA, AIIMS to the administration," said the RDA's letter, seeking the minister's intervention in the matter.

"Despite multiple letters (on three different dates), there has been no adequate action to address this issue of grave concern and eventually, leading the Resident to the edge, making her take the drastic step to end her life after losing the hope of justice in this prestigious institute," it said.

The letter said the doctor had also written to the Women's Grievance Cell and SC-ST Welfare Cell of AIIMS as well as the National SC-ST Commission, but no appropriate action was taken.

"The reluctant behaviour of the administration and the institute committee led the resident to take such an extreme step of inflicting self-harm. Therefore, we appeal to the administration and the ministries concerned to expedite the process and address this injustice at the earliest. We look upon you for justice to prevail and to ensure that such actions do not happen again," the letter added.

According to a senior resident doctor, she tried to kill herself by taking some pills but within hours, some of her colleagues found out about it and rushed her to the emergency department of the hospital. She is presently admitted to the hospital.

(With inputs from PTI)