India protests: Doctors call for shutdown of services
An association of Indian doctors on Friday called for more than a million colleagues nationwide to “withdraw” all non-essential medical services for a 24-hour period beginning Saturday.
The medical body said that essential services would remain operational at hospitals, as protests over the rape and murder of a female medic trainee last week at a government hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata take root nationwide.
“Doctors, especially women, are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses. Both physical assaults and crimes are a result of indifference and insensitivity of the authorities concerned to the needs of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers,” the Indian Medical Association said in a statement.
Protests intensify on Friday
Thousands of people marched through various Indian cities Friday to ask for better security for doctors at work as well as demand accountability for the woman’s killing.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led a rally in the state’s capital city, Kolkata, on Friday, after students, doctors and residents took to the streets on the eve of India’s Independence Day.
Protests have generally been peaceful, but a mob vandalized the hospital where the medic was killed on Wednesday night, with protests having picked up more steam following the incident.
Demonstrators also gathered near Parliament in New Delhi, and people assembled in various other cities like Mumbai and Hyderabad.
Suvrankar Datta, a resident doctor at one of India’s top government hospitals in New Delhi said protests would continue and that hospital services could be hampered in the capital in the following days to come.
Multiple medical unions in both government and private hospitals have backed the protests.
Medic trainee was to work a 36-hour shift
The 31-year-old medic had settled down for a short nap after working for nearly 20 hours of a 36-hour shift before she was killed, local media reported. A police volunteer has been detained in connection with the crime.
But state government officers who first began investigating the case have been accused of mishandling it. The case has been transferred to a federal agency.
Doctors have repeatedly cited threats to their lives while on the job, with many calling for measures like cameras on campuses to ensure safety.
Protests have largely also focused on the big problem of sexual violence against women in the country — with female Indian social media users sharing harrowing stories about the many times they have felt unsafe.