New Delhi — Government hospitals across India turned away all but emergency patients on Monday as hundreds of thousands of doctors continued to refuse to work in a nationwide strike that began Saturday. Brutal rape and murder of a young female doctor.
Doctors have demanded safer workplaces and swift legal action after the victim was raped and murdered. 31 year old intern doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata on August 9, sparking a new wave of national anger over violence against women.
“Our indefinite work stoppage and sit-in will continue till our demands are met,” vowed Dr Aniket Mahata, spokesperson of the striking junior doctors at RG Kar.
The government has promised to set up a committee to come up with solutions to improve doctors’ safety and urged them to return to work, but doctors have not been convinced by the promise of action. The strikes began in Kolkata and quickly spread to other cities and states last week, becoming a nationwide action on Saturday supported by the Indian Medical Association.
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Fans of the two biggest football clubs in the state of West Bengal, where Kolkata is located, put aside their bitter rivalry to march through the city’s streets on Sunday night, demanding justice for the victim and the safety of the doctors.
Doctors in Delhi, the capital of India, and the state of Odisha have also vowed to continue their strike until their demands for immediate changes are met.
Thousands of people protested across India, including in the major cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, over the weekend. Protests also took place near the Indian parliament in New Delhi.
The nationwide outrage and protests are similar to those seen after the Gang rape and murder in 2012 The attack on a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi has prompted India to adopt stricter laws against sexual violence, but according to the latest available government data, authorities were still recording an average of about 90 rapes per day in 2022.
The autopsy report of the Kolkata medical intern revealed a level of brutality similar to that of the Delhi gang rape in 2012. Indian media outlets claiming to have seen the report said it detailed multiple injuries inflicted on the woman before her death, with strangulation cited as the cause of death. The nature and extent of the reported injuries suggest the woman resisted and may have been tortured before she was killed.
Kolkata police arrested a volunteer police officer on August 10 and charged him with rape and murder, but the victim’s parents have expressed doubts that others were involved. The case was transferred last week to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s top criminal investigation agency.
