India’s doctors walk out over medic’s rape and murder

Indian doctors launched a nationwide strike this morning as protests escalated against the “brutal” rape and murder of a trainee doctor in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.
“From every part of the country, we are seeing that doctors are overwhelmingly protesting and withholding their services,” said Indian Medical Association (IMA) president Dr RV Asokan.
More than a million doctors were expected to take part in the 24-hour work stoppage called by the IMA, India’s largest medical organisation.
The strike has paralysed medical services in the country of 1.4 billion people as public and private hospitals have suspended all but emergency treatment for patients. “The violence was so brutal. This has awakened in us our anger and frustration to what has happened,” Asokan told the Indian news channel NDTV.
The body of the 31-year-old victim was found by police on August 9 in a seminar hall at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. She is thought to have gone there to rest during a 36-hour shift.
Her parents have said that they suspect that their daughter was gang-raped.
Detectives belonging to the federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are working on the case after the Kolkata police were accused of mishandling their investigation.
“We have identified at least 30 suspects and have started questioning them,” a CBI officer said.
Asokan said the attack “was definitely not done by one culprit, that much is so very clear. But let all scientific reports, DNA profiling be done”.
Male and female doctors clad in white coats demonstrated outside hospitals in different parts of the country, hoisting placards reading: “Hands that heal should not bleed” and “Enough is enough”.
“I truly get scared when I am working shifts, especially the night shift. It gives us goosebumps when we hear the details [of the attack],” one woman doctor who was protesting in the north Indian city of Lucknow said. “It is not safe, there should be CCTV cameras and guards who can protect us,” she told local media.
Now the government has said it is looking at introducing legislation banning violence against the medical profession. A 2019 study published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry reported that some 75 per cent of doctors have experienced some form of violence.
The IMA said: “The entire medical fraternity is shocked beyond words” at the murder and wants hospitals across the country to be declared safe zones with proper security, the IMA said.
It was unfathamobable that “our airports are declared safe zones”, airline staff get protective legislation but “doctors and hospitals are expected to fend for themselves”, the medical association added.