Angry Indian doctors complain about the rape and murder of a colleague

NEW DELHI — Crowds of Indian doctors in white coats showed up Saturday as if ready to work, but instead stood outside hospitals demanding justice after the rape and murder of a colleague.

“We just want to be safe while doing our duty,” said Sapna Rani, a 27-year-old doctor from the capital New Delhi who took part in a 24-hour nationwide strike by medical workers.

“The hospital is the last place where we have to worry about our safety.”

READ: Protests grow in India over rape and murder of doctor at government hospital

The murder of the 31-year-old doctor, whose blood-soaked body was discovered in a government hospital in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta on August 9, has drawn the focus of anger over the chronic problem of violence against women.

At Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia public hospital, normally one of the capital's busiest, the doctor-to-patient ratio is so poor that a shift often lasts 36 hours, Rani said.

“And afterward, there's no real place to rest,” she said, describing how doctors spent their breaks “in wheelchairs and on stretchers.”

Awful

The murdered doctor in Calcutta was found in the seminar room of the teaching hospital, suggesting that she had taken a break there during a 36-hour shift.

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Hospital security staff report regularly witnessing violent behaviour from angry patients and their relatives who have lost patience after having to wait in long queues for hours in the heat.

“Just recently, an angry relative of a patient slapped a guard,” said Gopal Bisht, security officer at Lady Hardinge Hospital in Delhi.

The usual hustle and bustle of patients was replaced by protest chants on Saturday.

Female doctors held up placards outside hospitals and chanted slogans demanding justice. Their male colleagues joined them.

The cruelty of the attack has drawn comparisons to the horrific gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in Delhi in 2012.

In a country where sexual violence against women is widespread, this incident sparked great outrage.

In 2022, an average of nearly 90 rapes were reported per day in the country of 1.4 billion people.

The general public also took part in demonstrations in several cities this week, including a midnight candlelight rally in Kolkata.

“Violence and harassment”

Doctors say the protests are also intended to draw attention to “systemic problems” plaguing India’s overburdened public health infrastructure.

Such problems, according to the protesting doctors, endanger the “safety of health workers”.

Doctors working in public facilities say violence against health care workers has become so commonplace that people have become “desensitized” to it.

“What happened in Calcutta was not an isolated incident,” said Pankhuri Sharma, 24, a trainee doctor at a government hospital in Delhi.

“Violence and harassment are commonplace,” she said.

Her doctor, 27-year-old gynecologist Akanksha Tyagi, said it was “unfortunate” that “it took the life of a doctor” for people to take notice.