India More than 10 lakhs protested against the rape and murder of a young doctor in the eastern city of Kolkata last week. Dr on saturday The strike Stopping the services of hospitals.
According to the staff of the RG Kar Medical College, which is run by the West Bengal government, the slain doctor fell asleep in a lecture hall after working for 20 hours during a duty of around 36 hours, during which she was assaulted. went
Her colleagues told Reuters news agency that she slept on a carpet on the floor because there are no living or rest rooms for doctors.
Her body was found last Friday (August 9), with police confirming that she was murdered after being raped.
The Indian Medical Association, India’s largest doctors’ body, said the 24-hour shutdown would affect most hospital departments, except essential services.
In many cities of India, millions of women also took out rallies in connection with the ‘Reclaim the Night’ movement and demanded justice for the female doctor.
Their march was a powerful protest, an expression of deep and collective grief over the incident.
The largest protests took place in Kolkata where women celebrated the country’s 78th Independence Day holding placards, candles and the national flag and demanded justice for the victim doctor.
Riya Banerjee, a 22-year-old student, said she had walked more than five kilometers to take part in the protest because ‘it was important for everyone to step out of their comfortable lives and raise their voice.’
He told The Independent: ‘We want justice for the victim doctor, we want public spaces back. Why should we live in fear of abuse by men?’
The rape and murder of the female doctor has sparked protests across the country, reminiscent of the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case. Political parties, including Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, are also protesting over the issue, while public figures are demanding stricter punishment for crimes against women.
Five men and a minor gang-raped a 23-year-old physiotherapist trainee and her male friend on a bus in New Delhi on December 16, 2012, repeatedly raping the woman and beating them with an iron rod and throwing them on the road. was given The woman died about two weeks later at a hospital in Singapore from internal injuries.
Despite tougher laws since 2012, human rights activists say little has changed to ensure women’s safety. In 2022, an average of 86 cases of rape were reported every day in India.
Protests against the recent incident erupted at over 100 locations across Kolkata and nearby towns in West Bengal late Wednesday night, which continued till Thursday morning in several cities across the country, including New Delhi.
A poster at a rally in Kolkata read: ‘We want justice.’ Another read, ‘Hang the rapist, save the women.’
“Doctors across the country are questioning why it is so difficult to legislate for our security,” Dharv Chauhan of the Junior Doctors Network of the Medical Association told the Press Trust of India. The strike will continue until all demands are formally met.’
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not directly mention the Kolkata incident in his Independence Day address in New Delhi on Thursday but expressed deep grief over the ongoing violence against women.
He said that ‘there is anger at the atrocities against our mothers and sisters, there is anger in the country.’
He said that ‘crimes against women should be investigated quickly, brutality against women should be severely and quickly punished. This is essential for deterrence and building trust in society.’
Protesting doctors hold placards in Hyderabad on August 17, 2024, during a nationwide strike by doctors against the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata, West Bengal, India (Noah Salem/AFP)
Sanjay Ravi, a civilian volunteer attached to the Kolkata Police, has been arrested in connection with the case, who has now been handed over to the federal probe agency Central Bureau of Investigation following demands for an impartial and transparent probe.
More protests were planned for Friday, despite the severe impact on non-essential medical services at government hospitals across the country, affecting thousands of patients.
A key union, the National Federation of Resident Doctors Association, is calling for a full investigation, compensation for the victim’s family and a special law to deal with violence against health workers.
Debjani Ravi, who joined the protest with her two young daughters in College Square, Kolkata, said: ‘Not anymore. They should watch protests so that when they grow up they will be able to answer any man who dares to tease them.’
Shalini Dutta, a protester, told the Telegraph: ‘It’s not just about one night, every night women should have the freedom and choice to go out so that in the future no girl’s parents have to think about it. If the night gets late, their daughter will return safely or not.’
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In many cities, lakhs of women marched with slogans of ‘take back the night’. (The term is commonly used in reference to women’s rights, meaning that women have the right to feel free and safe, even at night.)
‘Mint Newspaper’ quoted Penjala Kundu, PR manager at a fintech company, as saying, ‘I personally did not expect that the entire city would participate in the protest march. Glad to see my city can still fight for its rights. It was heartening to see mothers walking hand in hand with their daughters. Even fathers let daughters go ahead while they stood back like rocks.’
Ram Jhum Sinha, a figurehead of the ‘Take back the night’ movement, described the incident as a new liberation struggle for women, which was illustrated by a powerful viral poster, in which a red hand grasps the moon. It was shown.
Ram Jhum Sinha, a social science researcher and a 2020 Sociology graduate from Calcutta’s Presidency University, was shocked by the rape and murder of the junior doctor.
When she was angered by former medical college principal Sandeep Ghosh’s comment blaming the victim, she decided to protest outside on the evening of Independence Day.
Sandeep Ghosh reportedly questioned why the junior doctor had gone to the seminar hall alone.
He told The Telegraph newspaper in Calcutta: ‘A comment that incriminates the victim is unacceptable. In protest, I decided to spend the night of August 14th outside. No one can lay claim to the night and tell us who can go out and why.’
Patients wait for their turn during a doctors’ protest at a government hospital in Hyderabad, India, on August 17, 2024 (Noah Salem/AFP)
Ram Jhum Sinha’s decision went viral on Facebook, leading to thousands of people taking to the streets.
He expressed his surprise and emotional state at such a huge response, noting that many women participated in the protest, even if it was for a few hours.
He told News18: ‘I’m overwhelmed by the whole response. I see women coming out of their homes and even though they can’t stay all night, they are deciding to stay two or three hours a night.’
The ‘Take back the night’ movement is a global movement, which began in the 1970s, to fight for women’s rights to feel safe and free from violence at night in public spaces. can
The movement often consists of protests, marches, and candlelight vigils where women and their supporters take to the streets at night, symbolically reclaiming these spaces and challenging societal norms, which have limited women’s freedom. Limits and blames the victim.
The ‘Take Back the Night’ movement strives to address issues such as sexual assault, harassment, and gender-based violence and advocates for safer societies and to raise awareness of these critical issues.
Ranjana Kumari, director of the Center for Social Research, told The Guardian: ‘When I see the silence, when I read how they brutally killed him, the complete disregard for security in the hospital, I The blood is opened. Nothing, absolutely nothing has changed since 2012. There was no CCTV camera in the room where the incident took place.’
The distraught father of the junior doctor told ‘The Indian Express’ that he will not accept any money from the government. ‘If I accept money for my daughter’s death, she will be sad. We want justice. We have refused compensation and will not accept any in future.’
Indian MP Kini Muzzi wrote on X: ‘The entire country is shocked by the horrific incident of rape and murder of a junior doctor in Kolkata. The details of the cruel and inhuman treatment done to them have shocked us. We are forced to wonder if any woman is safe anywhere in India. We must stand up and do something.’
She added: ‘I stand with the victim’s family in this unbearable pain.’
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2024-08-18 02:20:40
