Following the rape and killing of a trainee in the city of Kolkata, a nationwide doctors’ protest caused hospital services to be disrupted in multiple Indian cities on Tuesday, according to authorities and media.
Thousands of doctors marched on Monday in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal state, and other cities in the state to denounce the killing at a government-run hospital, demanding justice for the victim and better security measures.
The 31-year-old woman’s body was discovered Friday in a state-run hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, where she was a resident doctor. An autopsy confirmed she was sexually assaulted and killed.
Authorities arrested a police volunteer in connection with the crime
Medical students hold hands in Kolkata, India, as they protest what they say was the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in a state-run hospital in Kolkata, the capital of the state of West Bengal, Aug. 14, 2024.
India’s top police agency on Wednesday took over the investigation into the brutal rape and killing of a young doctor. The case has sparked widespread outrage and prompted a strike by doctors.
The 31-year-old woman’s body was discovered Friday in a state-run hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, where she was a resident doctor. An autopsy confirmed she was sexually assaulted and killed.
Authorities arrested a police volunteer in connection with the crime.
On Monday, thousands of doctors marched in Kolkata and across West Bengal to protest the killing. They demanded justice for the victim and improved security at hospitals.
The protest spread nationwide on Tuesday, disrupting hospital services in several Indian cities. More than 8,000 government doctors halted work in all hospital departments except emergency services.
Doctors, paramedics and medical students gather in Kolkata, India, to protest what they say was the rape and murder of a trainee doctor inside a state-run hospital facility in Kolkata, the capital of the state of West Bengal. Aug. 14, 2024.
In New Delhi, junior doctors protested outside a major government hospital, holding signs that read, “Doctors are not punching bags,” according to Reuters.
Doctors in government hospitals across several states have suspended elective services indefinitely, calling for swift justice and better workplace safety.
Police have detained a man who worked at the victim’s hospital, but there are accusations of mishandling the case.
The body of the 31-year-old trainee doctor was found dead inside the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on Friday. An autopsy showed she was raped before being killed.
A police volunteer was subsequently arrested in connection with the crime.
Protests spread to other parts of India on Tuesday, with more than 8,000 government doctors in the western Maharashtra state, home to the financial capital of Mumbai, halting work in all hospital departments except emergency services, local media reports said.
The Federation of Resident Doctors Association had called for nationwide halting of elective services in hospitals starting Monday.
Emergency services stayed suspended on Tuesday in almost all the government-run medical college hospitals in Kolkata, state official NS Nigam told the Reuters news agency, adding that the government was assessing the effect on health services.
In the national capital, New Delhi, junior doctors wearing white coats held posters that read, “Doctors are not punching bags,” as they sat in protest outside a large government hospital.
Similar protests in cities such as Lucknow, capital of the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, and in the western tourist resort state of Goa hit some hospital services, reports said.
Doctors and medical students hold their phone flashlights during a protest inside the premises of Dr R Ahmed Dental College and Hospital in Kolkata [Sahiba Chawdhary/Reuters]
“Pedestrian working conditions, inhuman workloads and violence in the workplace are the reality,” the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the biggest grouping of doctors in the country, told Health Minister JP Nadda in a letter released before they met him for talks on Tuesday.
IMA General Secretary Anil Kumar J Nayak told the ANI news agency that his group had urged Nadda to step up security at medical facilities.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare did not immediately comment.
“We feel a free and fair atmosphere is required for doctors, or else, no sAnd work is possible. We also demand installation of CCTV cameras in the hospitals,” a doctor at Gobind Ballabh Pant Hospital in the northeastern city of Agartala told the Indian Express newspaper.
A high court in Kolkata ordered that the criminal investigation into the incident be transferred to the federal agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, indicating that the authorities were treating the case as a national priority.
India’s medical education regulator, the National Medical Commission, issued a notice to all medical institutions calling for CCTV cameras to be installed in sensitive areas and for adequate security staff to be available, the newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Doctors in India’s crowded and often squalid government hospitals have long complained of being overworked and underpaid, and say not enough is done to curb violence levelled at them by people angered about the medical care on offer.
