The brutal rape and murder of a resident doctor during her 36-hour shift at a prominent state-run hospital in eastern India has led to an outbreak of protests and calls for a nationwide strike.
Hospital services across India have been disrupted as hundreds of thousands of doctors, nurses, and other medical staff launched an indefinite strike .
Protesters demanded “justice for our didi [elder sister]” outside the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata where the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee was found dead. The Independent spoke to doctors who unanimously agreed that the facility lacked safety measures for medical workers.
The demonstrations ensued last week after the resident doctor was found dead inside a seminar hall of the hospital on Friday. An autopsy later confirmed she had been sexually assaulted.
“She was very close to me – taught me most of the work I know today,” a student at the medical college, who did not want to be named, told The Independent . “I was working in the same department as an intern last year where she was found dead. This could happen to any of us in the future due to lack of security measures,” she said.
“We want the hospital authorities to take responsibility. What are they hiding?”
The local police arrested a civil volunteer associated with the Kolkata Police, Sanjay Roy, and remanded him to 14 days of custody. The suspect has been charged with rape and murder.
The protesting doctors in Kolkata and elsewhere have called for an unbiased investigation into the killing, the resignation of all responsible hospital authorities, adequate security for all medical staff, and speedy ratification of a healthcare protection law.
The victim was last seen after midnight on 9 August before she went to a third-floor seminar hall of the pulmonology department in the emergency building of the hospital during her 36-hour on-call duty.
Her partially naked body with visible marks of abuse was discovered by fellow students after 7am (local time) on Friday, who informed the police.
The victim’s family alleged they were initially informed by a senior police official over the phone that their daughter had died by suicide. “We want justice for our daughter. She did not deserve this. We want the truth to come out,” the father told The Telegraph Online .
The local police expanded their investigation into the suspected rape and murder to include resident doctors, hospital staff, and the assistant superintendent, who made the first call to the victim’s parents.
“We are absolutely transparent as far as this is concerned. We have nothing to hide,” Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal told reporters amid allegations of evidence tampering.
A 24-year-old nursing student, who has been part of the demonstration since Friday, said the protest was for “seeking justice for the junior doctor and for safety of all the present and future healthcare workers”.
“There is nobody protecting the people who save lives in this country. This should have never happened,” Jhanvi Pandey told The Independent .
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has set a deadline for the city police to complete the investigation by 17 August, failing which it would be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a federal investigative agency.
“If they fail [police] to complete the probe by Sunday, because of insider involvement, we will not keep the case with us,” she said after visiting the bereaved parents.
Sandip Ghosh, the principal of the medical college, resigned following public outrage over his remarks. He reportedly said: “It was irresponsible of the girl to go to the seminar hall alone at night.”
The pan- India doctors’ strike was in response to a call by the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (Forda) in solidarity with the agitation in Kolkata. The resident doctors association of the RG Kar Medical College ceased work on the emergency services last week.
The federation demanded the implementation of the central healthcare protection act, which prohibits acts of violence against healthcare service personnel including doctors, nurses, para-medical workers, medical students, and ambulance drivers.
“The strike is in response to a tragedy that has never happened in the history of the medical profession in India. It is not that we want to do it but the situation demands we set an example that the doctors’ can also take to the streets,” Aviral Mathur, president of Forda, told The Independent .
Dr Mathur said the association has received “overwhelming support”, with doctors and healthcare professionals of all levels across the nation joining the strike. The protest is expected to swell on Tuesday with more states participating.
“We demand that the investigation of the RG Kar Medical College should be done by an unbiased central agency, and the family of the victim should get due compensation,” he said, adding that the “too far” Sunday deadline raised the risk of evidence tampering.
“If there have been allegations of investigation getting botched up, swapped or tampered with, then there will be sufficient window.”
The doctors’ strike has left thousands of low-income patients in distress across state-run hospitals. Shyamal Guha, 78, was one such patient at the RG Kar hospital, who was made to return after spending more than two hours in the ambulance at the hospital.
“My father had a heart attack yesterday, now due to more complications the hospital asked us to move him here. They are now refusing to take him to the emergency room. If this continues, he will die,” Mr Guha’s son, Pradip, said.
While a series of ambulances made their way into the hospital premises, the patients inside the vehicle were forced to wait for hours and eventually return to find another hospital. “It is 4.30pm and RG Kar is the third hospital to have refused me treatment,” said a woman in anguish.
Dr Mathur said the strike was not called in haste without considering the patients. “Our profession is such that some patients will be left unattended but we have tried our best to continue emergency services,” he added.
A survey by the Indian Medical Association in 2015 found that 75 per cent of doctors in India faced some form of violence, with 12 per cent being physical assault.
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