Kolkata, India – On August 21, a scorching, humid afternoon, hundreds of medical doctors and medical college students marched by way of the capital of the japanese Indian state of West Bengal. Feminine medical doctors led the march, many in black T-shirts, some with stethoscopes round their necks.
Among the many banners the protesters held, one specifically spelled out the tragedy that united them: “She had taken an oath to avoid wasting lives, not lose her personal,” it mentioned.
The medical doctors and college students have been calling for justice for a 31-year-old trainee medic who was raped and murdered in one of many largest government-run hospitals and medical schools in Kolkata on August 9.
The homicide has prompted nationwide protests, with professionals from medical schools throughout West Bengal in addition to different residents of Kolkata popping out to protest, march and maintain candlelit vigils. A serious protest is deliberate for Tuesday, with organisers calling on members to march to Nabanna, the advanced that homes the West Bengal state authorities.
Among the many protesters on the August 21 rally was 31-year-old Sapna*, a junior physician from RG Kar Medical Faculty and Hospital, the establishment the place the trainee physician was killed. Like many different medical doctors and college students who spoke to Al Jazeera, she requested that her title be modified as a result of she feared repercussions from the hospital and faculty directors.
“If a lady physician will be killed in a hospital whereas on responsibility, the place can we girls ever really feel secure once more?” Sapna requested, earlier than breaking off to hitch the chants of, “We would like justice.”
“I really like what I do,” she continued, wiping sweat from her glasses. “It’s a ardour, not a occupation. However I must really feel secure contained in the hospital and I must see justice being accomplished to our useless colleague.”
Elevated safety measures
Tons of of medical college students, junior medical doctors, faculty alumni and colleagues from different medical colleges have gathered for a dharna, or sit-in protest, at RG Kar.
A bamboo shelter with waterproof sheeting has been constructed simply contained in the hospital’s primary gates to guard the protesters from monsoon downpours. Close by is the seven-storey constructing that homes the seminar corridor the place the sufferer’s physique was discovered. She had gone to the room to relaxation throughout a 36-hour shift.
A 33-year-old police volunteer, a part of a civic volunteer power employed by the federal government and tasked with aiding police on the hospital, has been arrested and charged with the crime.
Anita*, 29, a junior physician, recalled studying of her colleague’s dying. She had been working within the gynaecology-obstetrics outpatient division when one other colleague known as her at about 11am to say a health care provider had been discovered useless. Anita raced upstairs to the seminar room the place a couple of dozen junior medical doctors had gathered together with police and different hospital workers.
“I used to be in a daze. I couldn’t think about one thing like this might occur in my faculty,” she mentioned.
Anita says she is simply too scared to return to work. “I nonetheless tremble on the considered what occurred to her. I don’t have the braveness to return to work in the identical constructing or some other constructing within the hospital until they do one thing about tightening the safety. Really, I could by no means be capable to return in there once more.”
The protesting medical doctors say they aren’t solely scared; they’re indignant.
A part of that anger stems from how the hospital authorities dealt with the homicide. The sufferer’s dad and mom have been initially advised by hospital authorities that their daughter had died by suicide. An post-mortem confirmed that she had been raped and murdered. The Supreme Courtroom has raised issues concerning the hospital’s actions and the case is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
“The insensitive method during which the entire thing was dealt with by the hospital authorities was beautiful,” mentioned Aniruddh*, a trainee physician, earlier than including: “Please don’t disclose my actual title. They might fail us in our exams if we communicate an excessive amount of.”
Whereas not one of the medical doctors Al Jazeera spoke to reported experiencing assault or harassment themselves within the office, all of them mentioned they feared for his or her security.
About 75 percent of Indian doctors have confronted some type of violence at work, based on a 2015 survey by the Indian Medical Association.
The West Bengal Junior Docs’ Entrance (WBJDF), the organisation on the helm of the medical doctors’ protests within the state, is asking for elevated safety measures in medical schools, hospitals and well being centres in cities and rural areas.
“Now we have CCTV cameras that don’t work, many zones that aren’t coated, nobody displays the digital camera outputs,” defined Hassan Mushtaq, a member of WBJDF and a junior physician at RG Kar.
‘Can’t operate if I really feel unsafe’
As Anita broke off from chanting on the hospital protest web site, a fellow protester handed her a bottle of water. “I’ve no concern of working for lengthy hours. I’ve no concern of coping with dozens of sufferers with essentially the most sophisticated issues. I can cope with no private life after 36 hours of responsibility if you simply wish to eat one thing and sleep,” she mentioned between sips. “However I can’t operate if I really feel unsafe.”
She described how sufferers are sometimes accompanied by a minimum of half a dozen relations, who can flip aggressive in the event that they really feel dissatisfied with the care their beloved one is receiving. She recalled an event when a male family member of a feminine affected person accused her of not treating the affected person promptly. The person tapped her roughly on the shoulder. “I felt threatened, my private house breached. Safety workers managed to usher the irate man away,” she recalled.
Rita*, 30, one other physician collaborating within the sit-in described an incident “when a drunken youth was introduced into ER with deadly accidents by a bunch of younger males who have been additionally inebriated”.
“We managed to intubate him nevertheless it was too late. He died. His buddies instantly turned on me, not simply verbally abusing me however virtually bodily pushing me,” she mentioned.
“The safety personnel have been outnumbered and helpless. Some male hospital workers – attendants and cleaners – got here to my rescue. Why ought to this occur to any physician?”
One other physician, 29-year-old Sita*, mentioned she as soon as caught a customer secretively filming her. When she advised him to cease, he grew to become aggressive. With no safety in sight, some senior feminine nurses got here to her help.
“Confronted by so many indignant girls, he slunk off,” Sita mentioned. “It’s a pressure to cope with such pressures daily.”
Anita says feminine medical doctors dwell with the concern that the verbal harassment they face “may flip bodily at any level”.
“The safety personnel posted across the hospital will not be policemen, by no means sufficient in quantity and don’t seem educated to sort out [difficult] conditions, so we at all times really feel in danger,” she added, “which is why for me this time it’s a do or die battle [for the security we need].”
‘I’m frightened’
It isn’t solely the medical doctors who’re involved.
Bonolota Chattopadhayay, 73, got here out to one of many protests within the metropolis’s south. Strolling with a limp alongside her son, she defined how she has been unable to sleep “ever because the incident on the RG Kar hospital”.
“I’ve at all times frightened about my teenage granddaughters after they exit on their very own or are late coming residence from college or faculty. However after the rape and homicide of a health care provider at RG Kar, I’m not simply frightened, I’m frightened about what may occur to them. I would like this example to alter.”
Tamashree Bhowmik, a instructor, introduced her eight-year-old daughter to the identical march.
“I need a secure life for my daughter. She goes to develop up and go to work, maybe away from residence. I must know she will likely be secure,” she mentioned. “That is my method of pushing for change in how society and males have a look at girls, deal with girls, abuse them.”
‘They don’t hearken to girls’
The Supreme Courtroom final week established a job power of medical doctors to make workplace safety recommendations for medical staff.
In the meantime, the West Bengal authorities’s response to the medical doctors’ demand for better security has drawn criticism. It has launched a brand new scheme known as “Rattirer Shaathi” or “Helpers of the Evening” below which girls could have designated secure zones and bogs, an app related to an alarm system in addition to feminine volunteers on responsibility at night time. However one instruction has induced new outrage – that night time shifts for feminine hospital workers be prevented “wherever potential”.
“How can a authorities that’s led by a really highly effective lady chief counsel one thing like this,” mentioned Ruchira Goswami, a feminist and assistant professor of sociology, gender and legislation on the West Bengal Nationwide College of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata, referring to the state authorities below Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. “They don’t hearken to girls. They aren’t bothered to create an ecosystem the place individuals can work safely. They’re shoving us girls again into the Center Ages.”
Anita agrees. “I don’t know if this concept has come from a authorities within the twenty first century or seventeenth,” she mentioned.
More durable legal guidelines towards rape have been launched in 2013 after 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist Jyoti Singh was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi and later died of her accidents. However annual information from India’s Nationwide Crime Data Bureau (NCRB) on crimes towards girls exhibits a gradual annual increase within the variety of rapes being dedicated within the nation.
Goswami says that information displays each a rise in assaults on girls and better reporting of rape. She considers the rise within the variety of rapes to be a part of a backlash. “As girls declare their rights increasingly more aggressively, the patriarchal backlash is larger,” she mentioned. “What’s stronger than rape to point out girls their place?”
*Names have been modified on the request of the interviewees