Hospitals in India hit as doctors launch nationwide strike over rape and murder of intern | India

Hospitals and clinics across India have begun turning away patients, except for emergency cases, after medical staff initiated a 24-hour shutdown in protest against the rape and murder of a doctor in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.

More than a million doctors are expected to join the strike on Saturday that is paralysing healthcare in the world's most populous country. Hospitals said teaching staff from medical schools had been deployed for emergency cases.

The strike, which began at 6 a.m. (0030 GMT), cut off access to scheduled medical procedures and outpatient consultations, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said in a statement.

The hospitals’ emergency departments, which are responsible for treating emergencies, remain staffed.

A 31-year-old doctor-in-training was raped and murdered last week in the medical college where she was working in Kolkata, sparking nationwide protests among doctors and drawing parallels with the infamous gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012.

According to news agency ANI, there was a heavy police presence outside the RG Kar Medical College, where the crime took place, on Saturday, while the hospital premises were deserted.

Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, which includes Kolkata, supported the protests across the state and called for speedy investigations and the strictest punishment for those responsible.

In Kolkata, numerous private clinics and diagnostic centers remained closed on Saturday.

Dr. Sandip Saha, a private pediatrician in the city, told Reuters that he would only attend patients in emergency cases.

In the state of Odisha, patients were queuing up and senior doctors were trying to cope with the rush, said Dr. Prabhas Ranjan Tripathy, deputy medical director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the city of Bhubaneswar.

“The junior doctors are on a comprehensive strike and therefore the pressure is increasing on all faculty members, including senior doctors,” he said.

Patients lined up outside hospitals, some of them unaware that this action would deprive them of medical care.

“I spent Rs 500 travelling here. I am paralysed and have a burning sensation in my feet, head and other parts of my body,” a patient at SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack in Odisha told a local television channel.

“We didn't know about the strike. What can we do? We have to go back home.”

Anger at the failure of strict laws to curb growing violence against women has led to protests by doctors and women's groups.

“Women are the majority of our profession in this country,” IMA President RV Asokan told Reuters on Friday. “We have repeatedly asked for their safety.”

The doctors' strike that began on Monday was more limited and affected only state hospitals and scheduled operations.

Thousands of people marched through various Indian cities on Friday to protest against the aspiring doctor's case and demand justice and more security on medical campuses and in hospitals.

Protesters gathered near Parliament in New Delhi, holding signs demanding that those responsible for the rapes and murders be brought to justice. In Kolkata, protesting doctors chanted “We want justice” and waved signs reading “No security, no care!” Similar protests took place in other Indian cities such as Mumbai and Hyderabad.

Political parties, Bollywood actors and other well-known personalities expressed their dismay over the crime and demanded stricter punishments for the perpetrators.

The protests, which were generally peaceful, began on August 9 when police discovered the blood-soaked body of the doctor-educator in the seminar room of Kolkata's government-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. She had gone there to rest during a long night shift.

A volunteer police officer who was supposed to help police officers and their families who had to be hospitalized was arrested and charged with the crime.

Adding to the anger was Thursday's news that police in Uttarakhand discovered the body of a young nurse on her way home from work on August 8; she had been raped and murdered nine days earlier.

Sexual violence against women is a widespread problem in India. In 2022, police recorded 31,516 rape reports, according to the National Crime Records Bureau – a 20% increase from 2021.

Guardian staff and Associated Press contributed to this report