Protesters in India call for safer working conditions after rape and murder of female doctor

Dr. Rimy Dey: This is really chilling and a bloodcurdling incident that has occurred in the heart of Kolkata, in one of the oldest and one of the best state-run medical colleges in the state, and in the country — R. G. Kar Medical College as we know it. This is not only a crime against one individual, a doctor or a gender-based violence, it is also an attack on the very essence of humanity, is what I feel. Women are not safe in their homes and their workplaces, and this blanket of unsafety pervades everything. Like, you could be a daily wage earner, you could be a doctor who could belong to the cream of society, no one is spared.

She was a second-year postgraduate trainee in the Department of Respiratory Medicine. On the night of the incident, she was on a 36-hour-long shift. And as we’ve known from sources that towards the end of the shift, she just retired for a couple of hours. And as it is in most of the medical colleges across India, there are no proper duty doctors’ room where a doctor could sleep or retire or get freshened up. So, she had gone to the seminar room of the same hospital to rest for a couple of hours, and in the morning, they discovered her bludgeoned and murdered and violated and raped.

It breaks my heart into pieces knowing of such incidents, and that despite such incidences happening over and over again, that there is still a lack of infrastructure, still any proactiveness shown from the concerned authorities regarding this to make the hospitals safe for doctors to work in it. It makes me feel very sad and anguished.

In government hospitals, the security is pathetic because we are such a big population of people and most of the country’s people do not have access to private hospitals. The footfall in such government hospitals, the number of patients that attend such government hospitals — because these are mostly these government hospitals are in a prime location in the city or the state. So, people from far and wide villages come and flock these hospitals. So, the doctor-patient ratio is also very poor in such hospitals. And, in comparison, the security status is negligible.

For instance, in this case, we see the R. G. Kar Medical College in question is a big hospital which sees a lot of footfall in a day. And there was not one security personnel that was there in that hospital building of around four or five floors, which is appalling, that as a medical college, a mob could break down any time and there would be no security measures.

There was no CCTV installed. There is no 24-hour monitoring or surveillance system in place in a government hospital which sees such a magnitude of patient footfall. This is scary, not only for the doctors, but for everyone in general, even the patients’ security could be compromised in the long run. If you see a patient or an attendant or a nursing staff, anyone’s security could be compromised.

This protest has now started from Kolkata and spread across the country. Every moment we are getting an update from one state or the other, where the medical students are posting photos and videos of candle marches and protest marches happening in their state and their medical colleges or their hospitals.

And it is giving me hope that the government that is blindfolded against such violence for such a long time, probably they’ll be unblinded and they will get to see how that safety in the workplace, safety for women in the workplace or safety of any professional in their workplace is of paramount importance. And people are also pressing for a central law for the protection of healthcare professionals. They are pressing for safer hospitals.

These are basic, you know, you are working in a hospital saving lives. And how could you be working and saving lives when your life is at risk? So, I’m hopeful that these kinds of protests, the magnitude of it, will and should help the government and the authorities and the lawmakers see that this is the need of the hour, that these things happen so that such incidences do not repeat in the future.