Hospitals hit by 24-hour shutdown as protests demanding protection for health workers and condemning violence swell
\n Kolkata
\nHundreds of thousands of Indian health workers and their supporters have launched a nationwide strike to protest against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor last week at a government hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata.
\nMany of the protests on Saturday were led by doctors and other healthcare workers, who were also joined by tens of thousands of other Indians demanding action.
\nHospitals and clinics across India turned away patients, except for emergency cases, on Saturday as medical professionals started a 24-hour shutdown at 6am (00:30 GMT). Faculty from medical colleges had been pressed into service for emergencies.
\n\u201cWe want justice,\u201d the protesters shouted, as they gathered in Kolkata to call for better working conditions and treatment not only for health workers, but also for women in general.
\n\u201cHands that heal shouldn\u2019t bleed,\u201d one handwritten sign read.
\nThe discovery of the 31-year-old doctor\u2019s bloodied body on August 9 at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital led to furious protests in several cities across the country.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t feel safe,\u201d Antara Das, a medical student who joined the protest in Kolkata, told Al Jazeera. \u201cIf this happened inside a hospital that is second home to us, where are we safe now?\u201d
\nThe murdered doctor was found in the seminar hall of the teaching hospital where she was working a 36-hour shift. An autopsy confirmed sexual assault.
\nThe Indian Medical Association, (IMA), the country\u2019s largest grouping of medics with 400,000 members, condemned the \u201ccrime of barbaric scale and the lack of safe spaces for women\u201d, adding in a statement that both the medical fraternity and the country were \u201cvictims\u201d.
\nHospitals and clinics in Lucknow in northern Uttar Pradesh state, Ahmedabad in western Gujarat, Guwahati in northeastern Assam and Chennai in southern Tamil Nadu as well as other cities joined the strike.
\n\u201cWe just want to be safe while we are doing our duty,\u201d said Sapna Rani, a 27-year-old woman doctor in the capital, New Delhi, who took part in the strike.
\nAt the Ram Manohar Lohia public hospital, usually one of New Delhi\u2019s busiest, Rani said the \u201cdoctor-to-patient\u201d ratio was so abysmal that shifts often lasted 36 hours.
\n\u201cAnd after that, there is no proper place to rest,\u201d she told the AFP news agency, describing how doctors took breaks in \u201cwheelchairs and stretchers\u201d.<\/p>\n
Struggle for justice
\nRakhi Sanyal, a doctor in Kolkata and professor at the West Bengal University of Health Science, denounced the \u201cbrutal murder\u201d of the doctor, and called for \u201cjustice\u201d for the killing.
\n\u201cIt is the duty of the administration to look after our safety,\u201d she told Al Jazeera. \u201cThis should not have happened.\u201d
\nDoctors are demanding the implementation of the Central Protection Act, legislation to protect healthcare workers from violence.
\nThey are also calling for more stringent laws, including making any attack on on-duty medics an offence without the possibility of bail.
\nAkanksha Tyagi, a 27-year-old gynaecologist at a state-run hospital in New Delhi said it was \u201cdeplorable\u201d that \u201cit took the life of a doctor\u201d for people to take notice.
\nOne man has been detained in connection with the crime, which is now being probed by federal investigators after state government officers were accused of mishandling the investigation.
\nMany cases of crimes against women go unreported in India because of the stigma surrounding sexual violence and a lack of faith in the police.
\nThere were more than 31,000 reported rapes in India in 2022, the latest year for which data is available, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
\nAt a rally by doctors in the capital one poster read: \u201cEnough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hospitals hit by 24-hour shutdown as protests demanding protection for health workers and condemning violence swell Kolkata Hundreds of thousands of Indian health workers and their supporters have launched a nationwide strike to protest against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor last week at a government hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-425553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n