Doctors call for nationwide strike as protests swell in Kolkata rape and murder case

The Indian Medical Association, the country’s largest grouping of medics, said it would implement a nationwide shutdown of most departments, except essential services, for 24 hours from Saturday morning, the largest such strike in at least a decade.

“Doctors, especially women are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for the authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses,” the IMA said in a statement issued on X late.

Massive protests have erupted in India following the rape and murder of a junior doctor during her 36-hour shift at a state-run hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata.

A High Court in India has severely criticised the state police for the lack of preventive measures to curb the vandalism at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

“If 7000 people are to gather, it hard to believe the state police did not know. So many people can’t come walking. This is an absolute failure of state machinery,” the two-judge bench of Calcutta High Court said today.

The police have arrested at least 19 people for vandalising the emergency ward, nursing station, medicine store and parts of the outpatient department of the hospital during the early hours of Thursday.

A 31-year-old junior doctor was found dead in the seminar hall of the hospital.

The Kolkata police have arrested 19 men for breaking through the barricades at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, who went on a rampage inside the emergency ward.

The peaceful protests led by women on Wednesday were marred later in the night by a mob of men who broke through the police barricade, vandalising the protest venue and ransacking the emergency ward.

The police had shared pictures of the suspects who were allegedly involved in the vandalism and urged the public to come forward with information.

Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, is leading a protest rally, where she demanded the death penalty for those found guilty in the Kolkata doctor’s rape and murder case.

Tens of thousands of women took to the streets across India on Wednesday night in protest over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a prominent state-run hospital in West Bengal.

The largest of the protests took place in Kolkata itself, where women armed with placards, candles and the Indian national flag ushered in the country’s 78th Independence Day at midnight by demanding justice for the killing of the 31-year-old female resident at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The doctor cannot be named due to India’s laws protecting the identity of rape victims, even in death. Her partially naked body was discovered by students last Friday morning, with an autopsy later confirming she had been sexually assaulted.

Women at the “Reclaim the Night” protest told The Independent that they wanted swift justice for the victim – some are calling for the perpetrator or perpetrators to be given the death penalty – but also a wider reckoning on violence against women and the safety of doctors in the country.

India’s federal Director General of Health Services has asked all the heads of state-run hospitals to file a police complaint within six hours of any incidence of violence.

“In the event of any violence against any health care worker while on duty, the Head of Institution shall be responsible for filing an Institutional FIR [first information report] within a maximum of 6 hours of the incident,” the memorandum read.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in opposition in West Bengal state, has called on the chief minister to resign following the rape and murder of a junior doctor at a state-run hospital in Kolkata.

The BJP has accused Ms Banerjee of failing to maintain law and order after a mob of dozens of men vandalised the hospital where the woman was found dead.

The party’s women’s branch will hold a candlelight rally today, that would culminate outside Ms Banerjee’s house.