Kolkata rape and murder: Doctors at India hospital defy court order with strike

Protest over killing of junior doctor leaves thousands of patients without care despite intervention from Supreme Court

Banaras Hindu University students march in Varanasi on August 20, 2024, amid nationwide strike by medical practitioners to condemn the rape and murder of a doctor in India's West Bengal state. AFP

Trainee doctors at India’s leading medical institution on Wednesday defied a Supreme Court order to end their days-long strike in protest against the rape and murder of a colleague, leaving thousands of patients without care.

A 31-year-old resident doctor at a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata was sexually assaulted and killed on August 9, in a case that has highlighted the problem of violence against women in India.

Her body was discovered in the government-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital with 16 external and nine internal injury marks, including to her head and neck that indicated strangulation, according to a postmortem report.

The killing has triggered nationwide protests by junior and trainee doctors, who have since refused to treat non-emergency patients as they demand a safer workplace and a swift criminal investigation.

India's Supreme Court waded in on Tuesday by announcing a national task force to improve safety for healthcare workers, but the court also requested the protesting doctors return to work.

A senior doctor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, a state-run organisation considered the country's premier medical institution, told The National on Wednesday that the protest had led to the suspension of a number of services including the hospital's outpatient department.

The medic said he was attending only to emergencies and patients with follow-up appointments and was wearing a black badge on his uniform in solidarity with his colleagues.

Between 7,200 and 10,000 patients visit the outpatient department (OPD) every day at the Delhi hospital.

“At the moment, we are not doing anything apart from attending to patients with follow-ups. The OPDs are largely shut. We have continued to protest wearing black badges,” the doctor told The National.

“They will not be joining work and will continue the agitation.”

Doctors in the country have long faced abuse from relatives of patients, and some have suffered assaults.

A survey by the Indian Medical Association in 2015 found 75 per cent of doctors had faced some form of violence from relatives.

The Federation of All India Medical Associations (Faima), a body representing doctors that has been leading the protests, said they welcomed the task force but their demand was legislation.

They are calling on lawmakers to pass legislation called the Prevention of Violence Against Healthcare Professionals and Clinical Establishment Bill, also known as the Central Protection Act.

It is aimed at defining what constitutes violence against doctors and establishing appropriate punishments and was introduced to parliament in 2022.

But then health minister Mansukh Mandaviya shelved the bill, saying most of its objectives were covered in another piece of legislation that was amended in 2020.

The 2020 amendment ordered states to set up mechanisms to prevent violence against doctors, including with the imposition of penalties and helplines for victims.

“When the pandemic was over, this [the Central Protection Act] was again put into halt,” Faima chairman Dr Rohan Krishnan told The National.

He said parliament failed to pass the act and it became null and void after an expiration period of a year.

Dr Rohan said healthcare workers are demanding the government revive the legislation.

“The Supreme Court said a national task force comprising senior doctors and other government officers should look into the living and security conditions of doctors, but the main issue of the strike is the doctors' security,” he said.

“The Central Protection Act should be passed into an ordinance and invoked because it has become very important for our protection. All the doctors are demanding the government look into this. We don’t trust the government and will not return to work unless it is passed.”

Doctors have said the rape and killing is a wake-up call on the issue of security.

The Indian Medical Association, the country’s most senior body for modern medicine, said the victim was on a 36-hour shift and had no safe space to rest.

“The working and living conditions of resident doctors need a complete overhaul,” the association said.