Why Protesters Are Calling for Safer Hospitals for India’s Doctors

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Why Protesters Are Calling for Safer Hospitals for India’s Doctors

After a long shift last Thursday, a junior doctor went to sleep in a seminar room at the Kolkata hospital where she worked. The next morning, her colleagues found her *****, her body showing signs of ***** and extreme physical brutality.

The ********, at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, has stirred ****** protests over entrenched misogyny and ********* against women and led thousands of doctors to walk out of major public hospitals across India to demand a safer working environment.

Attacks on doctors in hospitals are common in India. Last month, doctors in New Delhi went on strike after an ******** on a hospital by

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, many of them relatives of a woman who ***** during surgery after giving birth.

In the days after the ******** of the junior doctor, a 31-year-old physician ******** whose name may not be published under Indian law, intense anger boiled over into nationwide outrage. On Wednesday night, thousands of women protested on the streets of Kolkata, the largest city in West Bengal.

Outrage among doctors has also continued to build, with many government hospitals suspending all but emergency treatment as medical workers protest to demand better protection from such *********.

After protests by doctors, the head of R.G. Kar Medical College stepped down from his position, but hours later he was reassigned to another hospital by the state government. On Tuesday, a top court in Kolkata asked him to go on leave.

As the women marched, in another part of the city a mob stormed the R.G. Kar hospital, attacking protesting doctors and ransacking its emergency area. Videos from the clash showed the police using batons and ******* tear gas.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the rising discontent on Thursday during an event to mark the anniversary of India’s independence, without directly mentioning the ******** in Kolkata. As a society, he said, Indians should “seriously think about the kind of atrocities which are taking place against our mothers, sisters, daughters.”

“There is anger about that in the country. Common masses are ******. I am feeling that anger,” Mr. Modi said. “Our nation, our society and our state governments need to take that seriously. ****** against women should be investigated more urgently.”

During the initial investigation, the police arrested Sanjoy Roy, a volunteer at a police post within the hospital. Mr. Roy, who was in police custody, could not be reached for comment.

However, Subarna Goswami, an official with the Federation of Government Doctors’ Associations, a nationwide doctors’ organization, said evidence described in a postmortem report “indicates a strong possibility of the involvement of multiple persons.”

Unsatisfied with the investigation, doctors have accused the police of a coverup.

The chief of the Kolkata police, in response to protesters accusing officers of shielding other suspects, said the police had never indicated that there was only one person responsible in the case.

As the protests continued, a top court in Kolkata transferred the ******* case from the local police to the Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s premier federal investigations agency.

The protesting doctors are demanding a more stringent law to protect them from *********, including by making any ******* on a doctor an offense with no bail. In 2019, a draft bill was floated among lawmakers by the government but never gained traction. Federal health ministry officials have now assured doctors they would consider introducing separate legislation in Parliament specifically prohibiting ********* against them.

In India, about 75 percent of doctors say they have experienced *********, and a majority of them feel stressed by the profession,

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in The Indian Journal of Psychiatry. Shashi Tharoor, a lawmaker,

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to this data in urging stronger protection for medical workers before the Indian Parliament, a doctors’ association said.

Many doctors’ organizations have said their members will not return to work until the law to curb attacks on doctors is passed in both houses of Parliament.

Shreya Shaw, a postgraduate medical student at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, said she could no longer work night shifts, and that it was deeply unsettling to watch doctors who were protesting peacefully being attacked by mobs inside the hospital on Wednesday night.

“We can’t do emergency, night duties anymore,” she said. “We can’t rely on the hospital security, we cannot rely on the police.”

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#Protesters #Calling #Safer #Hospitals #Indias #Doctors

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