Nationwide doctors’ protests reflect widespread anxieties

Kolkata outrage again reminds us how lax we are about women’s safety.

The response to the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old junior doctor at a Kolkata hospital has gone beyond the safety concerns of a local hospital to matters concerning the security of doctors, medical personnel and women everywhere. The brutal assault and murder of the post-graduate trainee at the R G Kar Medical College has sparked nationwide outrage.

It has been compared to the Nirbhaya murder in 2012 which had led to debates on women’s safety and formulation of new laws. Doctors and other medical personnel have held nationwide protests and members of the public have joined them. Doctors’ associations have led strikes, which have affected the working of hospitals in many places. The government has requested the doctors to resume work and promised to set up a committee to study their demands for more measures to ensure their safety.

There were lapses in the initial investigation of the case, and it must be found out whether they were deliberate or part of a system where women’s safety is not taken seriously, and the immediate reaction to any untoward incident is to cover it up or to take diversionary measures. The matter has become more complicated because of politics, and murkier after the attack on the hospital by goons.

The judiciary has stepped in with an order transferring the case to the CBI. The investigation is under way and hopefully it will solve the case early and put to rest the many speculations and theories around it. The young doctor and her parents should be given justice and the circumstances of the killing should be fully brought to light.

The incident has led to an outpouring of public sentiment, especially of young people, as seen in the Reclaim the Night protests in Kolkata and elsewhere. They have again highlighted the lack of safety in public places, especially in hospitals, educational institutions, malls and public transport vehicles. The Kolkata hospital did not have any facility for doctors to rest at night, and the security was so lax that a sexual predator could freely roam around on its premises.

In many other places, such facilities don’t exist, and even when they do, they don’t work. Only less than half of the Nirbhaya Fund, set up to support initiatives to protect the safety of women, was utilised between 2013 and 2022. This reflects not just legal, institutional and infrastructural challenges but also societal attitudes. The Kolkata outrage is yet another reminder of the need to ensure safety and justice for all women not just at their workplaces but also elsewhere.