Dr Eileen Souza India was examining a patient at a crowded private hospital in the southern state of Tamil Nadu when a senior doctor groped her from behind.
Elaine, who started her internship at the hospital aged 25, told The Independent: ‘There was room for at least 10 people in the queue behind me and yet my senior did this embarrassing thing in front of everyone.’
His doctor parents were alumni of the same prestigious medical college in the southern city of Vellore. Elaine says she chose the profession with a sense of security, but that illusion was soon shattered as she was sexually harassed and assaulted by several male colleagues over the years.
All this, she says, made her aware of her weaknesses as a woman despite her high social status, and it’s even harder for women who don’t come from the same background as her.
Eileen Souza was speaking about her trying three years, fueled by the country’s outrage over the recent rape and murder of a trainee doctor in the eastern city of Kolkata.
More than a million doctors in India went on strike this month amid protests against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor on August 9. The victim doctor had gone to sleep in a lecture hall after working for about 20 hours in a 36-hour shift at the government hospital RG Kar Medical College where she was subjected to this brutality.
Since the incident, junior doctors have been taking to the streets in protest demanding justice for the victim doctor and better protection for women in hospitals and other workplaces. The incident is being seen as the second wave of the ‘Me Too’ campaign in India as female actors from the South Indian film industry are speaking out about systematic sexual exploitation by their seniors and the government. A fact-finding committee appointed has confirmed their allegations.
The Independent spoke to about a dozen female doctors about their experiences working in hospitals across India, and all spoke of an environment where they were sexually harassed. Their names have been changed to protect their identities as strict Indian laws do not allow the names of victims of sex crimes to be revealed.
Elaine Souza says, ‘I was an intern in the emergency department and a junior consultant’s assistant when this happened to me.
He recalled his senior doctor’s shockingly inappropriate behaviour, saying: ‘It was clear to everyone there that this behavior had no purpose other than to harass me.’
Elaine chose not to speak at the time, fearing the accused’s powerful position and the absence of a reliable whistle-blower system.
According to him: ‘As a senior consultant he could have easily damaged my reputation and defamed me. I was afraid he would spread rumors that I was always causing trouble, complaining and making accusations.’
Indian law requires all workplaces to have a system in place to address sexual harassment complaints, but a recent analysis by the NGO Udti Foundation found that 59 percent of companies do not comply with the law. While specific data for hospitals and clinics in India is not publicly available.
Elaine Souza says: ‘I feel uncomfortable and confused to think that I have encouraged this behavior (by being silent).’
On August 20, the Supreme Court of India ordered the formation of a hospital safety task force recommending measures to ensure the safety of medical workers.
Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said: ‘If women cannot go to the workplace and be safe, we are denying them a basic environment of equality.
The court suggested that a doctor-led task force consider wide-ranging reforms for staff safety in medical institutions, including separate rooms for women staff, adequate lighting on campuses, CCTV coverage and quarterly safety audits. This includes the formation of employee panels.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reiterated the need for workplace protection for women medical personnel.
The IMA listed other demands including assurance of security and limited duty hours, saying: ‘It is the duty of the authorities to provide security to doctors inside hospitals and campuses.’
The association added: ‘We appeal to you to intervene. This will give confidence not only to women doctors but also to every woman in the workplace. Sixty percent of Indian doctors are women. The rate is 68% in the dental profession, 75% in physiotherapy and 85% in nursing. All healthcare professionals deserve a peaceful workplace environment, safety and security.’
Lavanya Biswas, 32, a medical worker from Kolkata, says that in 2017, a senior colleague at a hospital in Vellore threatened her with physical violence after she rejected his sexual desire.
She says they started targeting her religion after she refused. She says: ‘He got quite angry that I had converted and started making nasty comments about my faith.’
One day when she was engaged in the difficult process of taking a blood sample from a newborn baby, he insulted her religion and said, ‘Where is your Messiah?’
He asked to keep the relationship ‘professional’ but his behavior continued to deteriorate. The situation worsened when they were on night duty together.
Medical professionals hold posters and chant slogans during a protest to condemn the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata on August 30, 2024 (Debyangshu Sarkar/AFP)
Biswas said: ‘We were the only two in the ward at night and we were on night rounds when he asked why are you not talking to me? I told them, ‘If you keep bothering me, I will file a complaint against you.’
The senior’s response was alarming. She allegedly replied: ‘Oh so you want to file a complaint against me? Then I will actually beat you to make this complaint seem legitimate.’
Biswas stood her ground but was shaken by the experience and feared for her safety.
Today, she regrets not reporting the incident for fear of being called an accuser.
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According to him: ‘I felt that I would be the one who would get in trouble, it is the tradition here to hide everything and silence everyone. I already feel helpless. I didn’t want to ruin my career and I didn’t want to gain notoriety.’
Dr Himani Iyer, a 28-year-old resident of Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Rohtak district, narrated her horrific stalking experience.
Referring to an incident on the Hindu festival of Holi in March, the PGIMS student said: ‘A man with long hair in a red car started following me during Holi.
This continued for a long time after which Iyer asked the hostel guards to stop the vehicle from coming here.
That day the car was parked outside the boys hostel but from the next day the driver started following them from their hostel to the pathology department.
She says the driver used to wait for them to finish because everyone has access inside the campus, it could be anyone.
Says Iyer: ‘Initially I was very worried. I couldn’t bring myself to take a picture of the car or note the number but I didn’t lodge a complaint and I didn’t know where to get help as going directly to the police should be a last resort.’
In India, the police never make it to the courts for trivial cases, instead they often administer their own justice, be it through arbitration or simply killing suspects and then refusing to file complaints. Even the most serious and major crimes in India take years to reach a conclusion through the courts.
Iyer says that when she finally noted the number of the car and went to the police, they did not register her complaint.
‘They were telling me that I should fight them myself, which they vehemently refused.
According to him: ‘I said I can’t do that. I am not from this state. I don’t even understand local methods. So I would like the police to take action, so they found his number. I think the police spoke to him and then he stopped.’
Iyer, who raised the need for campus security at a protest held at PGIMS Rohtak against the Kolkata rape and murder case, says: ‘It is not easy to go to the police immediately and even though my problem has been solved. But there are very young students and lower class people and going to the police would not be the first choice one would think of.’
According to him: ‘If you talk to any of the resident doctors, there is fear in everyone. Today, none of the women doctors want to go out alone. Everyone is trying to join the group. Even I prefer not to go out alone at 8pm or later. I try my best to take a friend with me.’
She says that after the Kolkata incident, many women doctors, like me, are feeling very insecure about the whole issue.
Anya Kumar, a former student of PGIMS, says that she and her female colleagues were routinely subjected to daily sexual harassment. She recalls an incident during an anatomy class around a dead body that left her shaken.
She said: ‘All of us women were standing around a table when a professor asked for a pair of gloves. So we asked them if they wanted 6.5 size gloves and they said ok just give me six and a half inch size gloves because it’s a different kind of joy to put your fingers in little things. He was rudely talking about women’s private parts.
PGIMS Assistant Public Relations Officer Dr Umesh Yadav told The Independent: ‘I want to assure you on behalf of PGIMS that we have an institutional committee for these things and that Kind of (nonsense) comments are taken very seriously and let me tell you that a few years ago a faculty member was dismissed over the same thing.’
Dr Yadav referred to the institution’s action against resident Dr Maninder Kaushik in August, who was accused of abducting and assaulting a 19-year-old female student after she refused.
According to him, in the present case, the university has taken suo moto notices without any formal complaint from the students or parents.
He said that the accused was arrested by the police and he was also expelled from the college. That is the maximum an organization can do and that is what we have done.
He added that the campus has sanctioned funds for installation of CCTV cameras and department heads have been directed to assist students in police complaints in cases of harassment.
The Economic Times, citing a Deloitte ‘Women at Work’ article, said in its report that about 43 percent of women experienced harassment or micro-aggression and had concerns about their safety or security while traveling for work.
Dr Reza D, 32, says her estranged father sexually harassed junior staff at the private hospital he ran with her mother.
According to him: ‘He would hire nurses and lab technicians and I have seen my father harass the people working under him.’
In 2007, when she was a teenager herself, Reza D recalled how nurses complained that her father would not let her leave the room after helping them with scans.
Speaking about her mother, with whom she is no longer in touch, Reza Day said: ‘Even though the matter reached her mother, who was also a hospital administrator, justice was still not served because unfortunately the whole thing was given the color of disloyalty instead of harassment. He added that it was a ‘clear case of workplace harassment. Since they were married, they saw the matter as unfaithful.’
She said: ‘I want to talk about this because the men who harass women are sometimes our brothers and fathers. I really feel the need to talk about it because I know people in my family have done it.’
She says her father used to touch an accountant while she was working on the computer.
While doctors are also victims of sexual violence, other workers in hospitals, especially private clinics, are rarely safe, Reza D says. ‘If your salary is coming from the owner, it is no longer a matter of equality.’
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2024-09-03 09:17:08
