India is once again shaken by anger following the rape and murder of a Kolkata hospital doctor. The case is becoming more scandalous by the day, underlining the persistence of violence against women.
The mutilated body of the 31-year-old trainee doctor was found on August 9 in a meeting room of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital where she practiced. According to the initial investigation, she was violently assaulted and raped when she isolated herself to rest after a 36-hour shift. The hospital, like many others, does not have an on-call room.
One man, a volunteer responsible for helping people make their way through hospital waiting lines, was arrested, but other people are believed to be involved. The slowness of the investigations and the behavior of the hospital management have exacerbated the medical staff's outrage.
The judges assigned to the case reported serious shortcomings on the part of the hospital administration. On Tuesday, August 13, the Kolkata High Court decided to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), citing a lack of significant progress in the investigations and the possibility of evidence being destroyed.
Protests by doctors are spreading across the country, demanding better facilities and improved security. Emotions are also running high among Indian women. The tragedy is reminiscent of the Nirbhaya case that sent shockwaves through the country in 2012 when a student was gang-raped and killed on board a bus in New Delhi. The legal arsenal against sexual crimes was strengthened in the wake of that incident. On Wednesday, thousands of women gathered late at night in Kolkata and other cities in "Reclaim the Night" marches to protest against the lack of safety for women in India.
A few hours later on Thursday, the hospital became a scene of mayhem. Some 40 individuals, armed with cricket bats and metal rods, stormed the campus and building, smashed security cameras and destroyed a platform that the hospital doctors had been using for their protest. They then ransacked treatment rooms and equipment. Did they want to destroy evidence?
On Friday, police arrested 19 people. India's largest doctors's union has decided to go on strike. "Both physical assaults and crimes are a result of indifference and insensitivity of the authorities concerned to the needs of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers," wrote the Indian Medical Association.
The unfolding unrest has now prompted a political turn. The leader of the opposition in the lower house of Parliament, Rahul Gandhi, asked, "Why are even the strict laws made after the Nirbhaya case unsuccessful in preventing such crimes?" His sister, Priyanka Gandhi, denounced the protection of perpetrators in rape cases. "Repeated leniency in cases of heinous atrocities on women, political protection to the accused and actions such as granting bail/parole to convicted prisoners let down women," she said.
You have 22.39% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.