Hospital doctors, students and specialists they have called an indefinite strike to protest the sexual assault and killing of a young colleague. The 31-year-old’s devastated body was found in theRG Kar University Hospital of Calcutta, the capital of West Bengalwhere the woman worked. After the arrest of a probation officer who worked at the same health facility, medical students and colleagues of the victim began demonstrations to demand justice and greater safety in the workplace, protests that quickly spread to several other states.
The announcement by the governor of the city was not enough to calm the controversy. West BengalMamata Banerjee who, during the meeting with the victim’s family, declared: “The police will soon charge the guilty one or the guilty ones; I know that relevant information has been gathered. And if the state police cannot find the necessary evidence within a few hours, I promise that I will turn the case over to CBIthe government’s investigative body.”
India is in shock for yet another young woman found beaten with obvious signs of sexual violence. But in these hours in the streets there is not only the request for justice, the doctors are also protesting against the attempt to cover up the guilty. In fact, the strike was triggered by deep indignation at the attempt to hide the truth by the hospital management. In fact, despite the shocking and evident violence suffered by the victim, the first version of the incident spoke of suicide. Not only that: the hospital director went as far as to criticize the doctor, “who should not have ventured alone, during the nightin an isolated and little frequented department”.
The specialist, 31 years oldwas on duty in the pulmonology department at the RG Kar University Hospital in Calcuttathe capital of West Bengal. From the testimonies of her colleagues it emerged that the girl, after a short break spent on the phone with a friend, returned to the department where she was supposed to complete a 36 hour shiftThe next day, the young woman was found dead and her body showed signs of sexual assault and it had been devastated from the stab wounds.
Doctors across the country have mobilized asking for the installation of video cameras that protect them in the workplace. In addition to the indignation for the brutal crime, there is also the desperation for the working conditions in hospitals, which have become intolerable: “we are attacked daily in the ward”, denounces the Federation of Hospital Doctors. The Indian Medical Association, after having confirmed that the 75% of Indian hospital workers faced at least one attack, he gave his official support to the protests.
