Medics nationwide strike for doctor’s rape and murder hit India's health service
New Delhi
Doctors in India for last few days are turning away patients from hospitals both private and government-run and remained off the job on Saturday and Sunday in some places calling for justice for a trainee colleague who was raped and murdered in Kolkata.
The historic city Kolkata - better known as Calcutta from the British era and hub of pre independence politics and intellectuals - is the provincial (state) capital of West Bengal.
The state of West Bengal - once a bastion of the Marxists - is being ruled by Trinamool (Grassroots) Congress -- an offshoot of India's grand old party the Congress. The Trinamool Congress was floated in 1997 by a mercurialwoman leader Mamata Banerjee, who achieved the unthinkable when in 2011 she dethroned the communists.
There are serious allegations against Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, and her administration and party colleagues in the complicity of rape and murder of 31-year-old trainee medico. The victim was raped and murdered on Aug 9.
The local Trinamool Congress dispensation and the concerned authorities have been alleged for trying to shield the wrongdoers. There are allegations that Kolkata police had been carrying out the so-called probe with so many lapses.
The ill-fated father of the 31-year-old trainee doctor, who was found dead with multiple wounds on her body
on August 9, expressed dissatisfaction with the ongoing investigation.
"No results have come out of the inquiry that is being done. We hope we will get results," he said.
The probe has been taken over by the federal government-run Central Bureau of Investigation. There are
allegations that the victim was gangraped but Kolkata police have so far arrested only one accused -- a civic
political volunteer.
Father of the trainee doctor claimed that the statewide movement over his daughter's death demanded by medical staff, doctors and hundreds of common people and celebrities are "being obstructed by the Mamata Banerjee government".
The father also accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of adopting a double standard in addressing the tragedy.
"The Chief Minister speaks at length, walking the streets demanding justice for my daughter. Yet, at the same time, she attempts to suppress public anger. Why is she engaging in duplicity? Is she afraid of people," he said.
The fact of the matter is Mamata Banerjee is herself a maestro of West Bengal's politics of street protests-which were actually a legacy of the Left.
"Mamata Banerjee has turned more communist than most communists. That's the whole trouble in our state. Even before this rape and murder, the state has witnessed hundreds of criminal activities, murder, smuggling etc. But Mamata Baneree staged a protest as the Chief Minister normally done by those in opposition," says Ramakanto Shanyal, a pro-Left analyst.
Moreover, the protest by an incumbent chief minister came rather ironically as Mamata herself is the state's health minister (responsible for what goes in the health sector and hospitals) and she is also Home Minister - responsible for law and order.
Several medical staff and doctors including Christians staged protests and participated in strikes in northeastern states such as Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
Dr George Thira, from the Nagaland In-Service Doctors’ Association(NIDA), said: “The protest in Nagaland was not just about seeking justice for the victim but also about sending a clear message that violence against healthcare workers will not be tolerated".
There are bigger issues including political ones in the entire game. Moreover, crime against women, including at work places, is not new in India.
In 2022, police recorded 31,516 reports of rape – a 20% increase from 2021, according to the federal National Crime Records Bureau of India.
The rape and murder of the trainee doctor inside R G Kar medical college in Kolkata where she worked, has actually
reminded the nation about the infamous and notorious gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old para medical
student on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012.
The 2012 rape in New Delhi had sparked outrage across the country and had embarrassed the
Congress party immensely which ruled India then.
Even the law related to the heinous crime against death penalty was changed brining
in a more stricter regime in 2013.
Four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of the para medical student in Delhi in 2012 were hanged
in 2020 after fierce litigation.
Of course, the unusual outpouring of anger has again started both in India and elsewhere
including Germany, Belgium and Times Square in New York.
Objective sociologists are not quite impressed by the mob protest and angry postings in
social media.
"There are reasons that we are not happy with these protests and strikes in the hospitals.
What we need in India is general awareness and a virtual shake up in mindset and the conduct
of police across India. These incidents call for greater protection for women in a country where
crimes against women are treated with apathy. And worse the prosecution and punishment
are rare," lamented social worker and analyst Jhantu Dey.
There is another angle. The general services in Indian hospitals including run by Christian
charity houses, governments and even private are shabby and punctuated with virtual
contempt. Visit hospitals and you will hear junior staff display
apathy towards patients and their near and dear ones.
You want someone to die - get him arrested by police for a few days or ask him to
visit hospitals for a week -- is an oft repeated refrain among citizens, and also influential
journalists or other professionals.
In this protest in West Bengal, another unique thing has happened, say analysts. The communists
in the left side of politics have joined with the right winger BJP. And hence the success of the strike
is alarming.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also said on her part that Red Flags of the Left have joined
hands with the saffron brigade of the BJP seeking to defame her government.
But the tongue lashing the West Bengal government got from the Calcutta High Court a few days
back would tell you the story of political interference as well as apathy towards the ill-fated
victim.
"There is every possibility that the evidence will be destroyed and the witnesses will be influenced,”
Justice T S Sivagnanam said presiding over the case last week.
Another constitutional body, the National Commission for Women's or NCW's preliminary findings
highlighted a glaring deficiency in the investigation conducted by Kolkata Police.
There is another matter of concern.
As of December 2022, India's doctor-population ratio was 1:834. In contrast
the US physician-to-population ratio increased from 277 to 301 physicians per 100,000 people
from 2010 to 2018.
ends
In fact, the people of West Bengal are flabbergasted about the manner in which the ruling dispensation has acted upon(read it as inaction) on the issue of RG Kar Rape case. Instead of taking punitive actions against the culprits or their coteries, they preferred to safeguard their interest. That was very unfortunate for the state like WB where the citizenry is generally of a very sensitive nature. Yes, over the last decade or so, things have changed a lot in the City of Joy and suburbs as far as the safety of the womenfolk is concerned. Complaints for women harassment, violence, teasing etc have risen manifolds. As for the Abhaya case at RG Kar hospital, despite all this glaring evidence of homicide which even a blind can see, but some demented people are claiming it to be a case of suicide. One has to be thoroughly out of mind to even level such a gruesome murder as suicide when there are tell-tale evidence of injury all around and more than that who on earth would be stripped naked on her own before committing suicide. What kind of an absurd conjecture is it! Unless someone has a vested interest in covering up such a flagitious crime he won't manufacture such an outlandish idea to classify the death as suicide. All these instances plus the widespread protests are certainly a fit to put the state under a scanner right away in the overall safety of the people at large and call for taking up the mantle of the state by none other than the President of India.
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