More than one million doctors go on strike in India

India’s medical workers held a countrywide strike on Saturday to protest the rape and killing of a trainee doctor at a state-run hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata.

The strike was called by the country’s largest group of doctors, the Indian Medical Association, saying all non-essential services at hospitals would be shut down across the country for 24 hours. The strike halted access to elective medical procedures and outpatient consultations, according to the IMA.

Doctors and medical students protest the rape and killing of a trainee doctor at a government hospital in Kolkata last week.Credit: AP

More than one million doctors were expected to join the strike, paralysing medical services across the world’s most populous nation. Hospitals said faculty staff from medical colleges had been pressed into service for emergency cases.

The suspension of work affected thousands of patients across India. The protests — mostly led by women — have intensified in recent days, demanding a safer working environment. Some junior doctors remained off the job on Sunday despite the end of a 24-hour strike called by the country’s biggest association of doctors.

Here’s what you need to know.

A trainee doctor has been killed

On August 9, police discovered the bloodied body of the 31-year-old trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital’s seminar hall in eastern Kolkata city.

The protests intensified in recent days.Credit: AP

A police volunteer working at the hospital has been detained in connection with the crime, but the family of the victim alleges it was a gang rape and more people were involved. An autopsy has confirmed sexual assault.

The case is being probed by federal investigators after state government officers were accused of mishandling the investigation.

On Wednesday night, thousands of women across the country protested on the streets, demanding justice for the victim as they participated in “Reclaim The Night” marches. Some protesters called for the perpetrators of the crime to be given the death penalty.

Protesters want justice and safety

Thousands of medical workers across India are demanding justice for the victim and a guarantee of safety for doctors and paramedics inside hospitals and medical campuses. Many of them have suspended all but emergency treatment, with more such strikes planned over the weekend.

Doctors say the assault highlights the vulnerability of medics who work without proper safety facilities in hospitals and medical campuses across India.

The Indian Medical Association asked for public support in its “struggle for justice” and called the killing a “crime of barbaric scale due to the lack of safe spaces for women”. “Women form the majority of our profession in this country. Time and again, we have asked for safety for them,” IMA President RV Asokan said.

The IMA said that 60 per cent of India’s doctors are women and called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene to ensure hospital staff were protected by security protocols akin to those at airports.

“All healthcare professionals deserve peaceful ambience, safety and security at workplace,” it wrote in a letter to Modi.

But in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, more than 6,000 trainee doctors in government hospitals continued to stay away from non-emergency medical services for a third day on Sunday, although private institutes resumed regular operations.

The doctors are also demanding more stringent laws to protect them from violence, including making any attack on on-duty medics an offence without the possibility of bail.

India’s history of violence against women

Sexual violence against women is a widespread problem in India.

Many cases of crimes against women go unreported in India due to the stigma surrounding sexual violence, as well as a lack of faith in the police. Women’s rights activists say the problem is particularly acute in rural areas, where the community sometimes shames victims of sexual assault and families worry about their social standing.

Still, the number of recorded rape cases in the country has increased. In 2022, police recorded 31,516 reports of rape — a 20 per cent jump from 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

In 2012, the gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus galvanised massive protests across India. It inspired lawmakers to order harsher penalties for such crimes, as well as the creation of fast-track courts dedicated to rape cases. The government also introduced the death penalty for repeat offenders.

The rape law amended in 2013 also criminalised stalking and voyeurism and lowered the age at which a person can be tried as an adult from 18 to 16.

AP, Reuters

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