Medics strike across India as anger over rape and murder of female junior doctor mounts

Aug. 16 (UPI) -- India's largest medical union said its members will walk out for 24 hours across the country Saturday to demand better security in the wake of the rape and murder of a female colleague working the night shift at a public hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata.

The Indian Medical Association announced the strike in a post on X saying its 400,000 members would withdraw their services nationwide starting 6 a.m. local time Saturday through 6 a.m. Sunday amid a growing public outcry over the killing of the 31-year-old resident and the subsequent botched handling of the case.

The association said the industrial action was "across all sectors wherever modern medicine doctors are providing service," warning routine outpatient departments would not function and elective surgeries would not be performed -- but promised that emergency and other essential services would be covered.

"Doctors, especially women, are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for the authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses," the IMA said.

"Both physical assaults and crimes are a result of indifference and insensitivity of concerned authorities to the needs of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers."

The union said it was also protesting the storming by a mob Wednesday night of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital where the doctor was murdered in the early hours of Aug. 9, the stalling of the police investigation after the first day and what it condemned as the "shabby handling" of the situation by college authorities.

The IMA doctors join thousands of their colleagues and medical students who walked out on indefinite strike Friday in Delhi and across the central state of Madhya Pradesh to protest the killing and demand a federal law to protect female doctors and nurses.

Samiksha Bedi, a doctor at Gandhi Medical College in the state capital Bhopal, said she and her colleagues were shaken by what had happened.

"The situation here is not that bad as the hospital has been renovated. We have duty rooms where we can rest, however, the guards should be there on every floor," she said. "Earlier, we were unsafe sometimes due to aggressive people. Now, we are scared of such heinous incidents."

The IMA issued a strike ultimatum Saturday giving the government 48 hours to conduct a thorough independent investigation leading to the arrest of those responsible, a public inquiry into the working conditions that contributed to the murder and implement urgent measures to improve doctors' safety, women in particular, in the workplace.

A man who volunteers at the RG Medical College has been arrested in connection with the killing and the National Medical Commission has since issued an advisory to all medical colleges ordering them to develop a safe work environment policy covering their campuses and hospitals for all staff including faculty, medical students and residents.

The advisory said institutions must put in place adequate security including male and female security staff in all clinical and public areas as well as on-call rooms and residential quarters, ensure corridors and campus are well lit for staff moving around at night and install CCTV in "all sensitive areas."

The commission also instructed institutions to investigate all incidents of violence promptly, file a police report and forward a detailed report on what action had been taken to the NMC within 48 hours.