Protests in India over rape and murder of intern doctor explained briefly

The rape and murder of a 31-year-old female resident doctor has sparked protests across India as the country grapples with inadequate protection for women and a growing epidemic of Gender-Based Violence Report.

The protests began in Kolkata, the capital of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, after a woman was raped and killed at a medical college on August 9. The protests then spread to Other states and the country’s capital New Delhi.

The intern’s death is just the latest in a series of Recent Highlights of Gender-Based Violence Sexual violence appears to be on the rise in India: According to the National Crime Records Bureaureported rape cases in 2022 increased by 20% compared to 2021.

The Indian government has implemented stricter laws against sexual and gender-based violence, as well as some A national strategy to address this issueIn 2012, a young woman was gang-raped and killed on a bus, sparking an international outcry. But with the current tragedy Other high-profile cases It suggests the laws have done little to end India’s systemic problem of gender-based violence, and now many protesters say they have had enough.

As part of the protests, Thousands of doctors (It is estimated that Hundreds of thousands of doctors) has resigned. On Saturday, doctors across the country — Mainly led by women — held a 24-hour strike. In the past few days, some doctors, such as A group of doctors in New Delhi, Some doctors tried to provide limited free medical services during the demonstrations, and most refused to see non-emergency patients. Government officials asked the protesting doctors to return to their normal work, but they refused to do so unless their demands were met.

Political leaders called for justice. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his speech on August 15, India’s Independence Day, that while he did not mention the Kolkata rape and death, the nation must “think seriously about the atrocities against our mothers, sisters and daughters” and that “crimes against women should be investigated with more urgency.”

As of now, the investigation into the rape and death is still ongoing, and calls are being made again for India strengthens legal protection For medical professionals in general, and women in particular.

Much remains unknown about the central figure in the protests, whose name cannot be made public under Indian law. However, we do know that she worked at the government-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. She reportedly fell asleep in a seminar room at the hospital after a long shift as a trainee doctor. Her body was discovered by her colleagues the next morning, on August 9.

The autopsy report showed signs of sexual violence. Police VolunteerThe woman, identified as Sanjay Roy, has been arrested and charged with murder. Insist that more people participate. Federal officials have taken Investigation of the case.

As the investigation continues, doctors are protesting safety conditions at the hospital, including a law that would cancel bail for those who attack them. They are also demanding a swift resolution to the case and drawing attention to larger systemic issues of gender-based violence in India, including the country’s stigma around sexual assault and distrust of the local police. according to Associated Press

Religious and ethnic minorities have been subjected to state gender-based and sexual violence. Perhaps one of the most egregious historical cases is Mass rape committed by Indian troops in Kashmir in 1991. More recently, in Jammu, Kashmir, the scene of government repression and popular uprising, An 8-year-old girl She was abducted by a former government official and police accomplices in 2017, held in a Hindu temple, tortured, raped and murdered. Police said the crime was The nomadic Muslim community to which the girl belonged was driven out of the area.

Notoriously, the Modi government Overturned the verdicts of 11 men convicted of raping Muslim women during the 2002 Gujarat riotsthough they were eventually sent back to jail. Modi was then the chief minister of Gujarat, where around 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the riots. And cases like this woman’s have cropped up at the community level; in the aftermath of her case, Three doctors accused of raping a nurse Located in northern India.

“There is a huge amount of gender-based violence in India,” Arthur Zia, a professor of anthropology at the University of Northern Colorado, told Vox. But she added that it is by no means unique to India. “It exists all over the world.”

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