[ad_1]
Doctors hold posters at the Government General Hospital in Vijayawada to protest against the rape and murder of a young medical worker from Kolkata on August 14, 2024. On August 12, doctors in government hospitals in several Indian states stopped elective services “indefinitely” to protest against the rape and murder of a young medical worker.
Idris Mohammed | AFP | Getty Images
Hospitals and clinics across India refused to admit patients except for emergencies on Saturday, and medical staff began a 24-hour work stoppage to protest the brutal rape and murder of a doctor in the eastern city of Kolkata.
More than a million doctors are expected to join the strike, paralyzing health services in the world’s most populous country. Hospitals say medical school faculty are being forced to help deal with emergencies.
The strike began at 6am (00:30 London time) and cut off access to elective medical procedures and outpatient consultations, according to a statement from the Indian Medical Association. Last week, a 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and killed inside the Kolkata Medical College where she worked, sparking protests by doctors across the country and drawing comparisons to 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, a large number of police forces were stationed outside the RG Kar Medical College where the crime took place on Saturday, but the hospital was empty.
Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, where Kolkata is located, has supported protests across the state, demanding a speedy investigation and strictest punishment for the culprits. A large number of private clinics and diagnostic centres in Kolkata remained closed on Saturday.
Sandip Saha, a private pediatrician in the city, told Reuters he would not see patients unless it was an emergency. Hospitals and clinics in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Guwahati in Assam, Chennai in Tamil Nadu and other cities have joined the strike, which will be one of the largest stoppages of hospital services in recent years.
In Odisha, where patients were waiting in long queues and senior doctors were struggling to cope with the crowds, Prabhas Ranjan Tripathy, vice president of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Bhubaneswar, told Reuters, “The resident doctors are on a total strike and because of this, all the faculty, the senior doctors, are facing increasing pressure.”
‘Needs punishment’
Patients lined up in long queues at hospitals, some unaware that the protests would prevent them from getting medical treatment. “I paid 500 rupees ($6) to come here. I am paralyzed and have burning sensation in my feet, head and other parts of my body,” an unnamed patient at SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack, Odisha, told local TV.
“We didn’t know there was a strike. What can we do? We have to go home.” Raghunath Sahu, 45, queueing at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, told Reuters that the daily quota set by doctors for seeing patients ended before noon. “I brought my sick grandmother. They didn’t see her today. I have to wait another day and try again,” Sahu said as he left the queue.
According to Kolkata police sources, the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the rape and murder case, has summoned several medical students of RG Kar College to ascertain the circumstances of the crime. The CBI also questioned the hospital’s director on Friday, the sources said.
The Indian government overhauled its criminal justice system after the Delhi gang rape, including tougher sentences, but activists say the changes have had little effect. Tough laws have failed to curb rising violence against women, sparking protests from doctors and women’s groups.
“Women form the majority of health workers in this country. We have repeatedly demanded their safety,” IMA president RV Asokan told Reuters on Friday. The IMA called for further legal measures to better protect health workers from violence and a swift investigation into the “brutal” crime in Kolkata.
“The punishment is certainly necessary, (and) it has to be very severe, but at the same time it should be implemented, the ultimate culmination of the punishment. But that has not happened,” said Shobha Gupta, a senior criminal lawyer who represented a Muslim woman who was gang-raped during the religious riots that swept the western state of Gujarat in 2002.
[ad_2]
Source link
