Rape and murder of doctor in India sends ripples of fear among women doctors

NEW DELHI – The

brutal rape and murder of a doctor

while on duty in one of India’s oldest hospitals in the eastern city of Kolkata has triggered a re-evaluation of workplace safety for women doctors across the country.

Women doctors and nurses, many from overcrowded and understaffed public hospitals, have

joined protests in large numbers

to seek justice for the victim who was raped and murdered on Aug 9 at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in West Bengal state, and to demand enhanced security for themselves.

Among them is Dr Yashi Jariya, 28, a second-year ENT (ear, nose and throat) resident doctor at New Delhi’s Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where doctors are demanding that the hospital hire more security guards and bouncers.

Dr Jariya said she had never given much thought to her personal safety even though she has routinely faced irate patients and their family members.

She was once held by the collar by an angry family member of a patient after being given bad news. Security guards were called in to escort the man out.

But after the recent murder and rape, she fears walking along deserted hospital corridors during the night shift or going for a midnight walk after dinner within the hospital complex.

“I felt I would not be hurt on my hospital premises because this is my second home. I spend more time here than I spend at home. That delusion has been shattered,” said Dr Jariya, who now finds herself picking up her parents’ call even during duty hours just to let them know she is fine.

“I personally feel very disturbed by everything that is going on. If this can happen to her (the Kolkata doctor), it can happen to any of us. It doesn’t sit right with us. We need to know what happened to her.”

The Kolkata victim was last seen alive in a hall where she had gone for a nap in between a 36-hour shift.

The next day, her mutilated body was found by her colleagues.

Leaked post-mortem and autopsy reports said the victim suffered extensive injuries, with strangulation cited as the cause of death.

Investigations have led the police to prime suspect Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police, but they are continuing the probe.

Dr Ridhi, 22, who did not want her last name to be published, said the case reminded her about her own vulnerability at the workplace. 

Recounting an incident that happened to her in a Delhi hospital two years ago, she said: “I was sleeping in the doctor’s duty room when a patient burst in. The lights were off, and it was like someone had barged into your bedroom.”

“I screamed, and thankfully the man ran off,” she said, noting that she found no one when she went out of the room. 

“I complained to the authorities, who told me to write a complaint. But nothing happened, including to the security guard and the patient. It reminded me of what happened in Kolkata.”

The current protests have once again underlined concerns about women’s safety in the workplace and in public spaces, an issue that India has been grappling with for some time amid high-profile rape and sexual harassment cases. 

Women activists said the doctors’ protests are reminiscent of the widespread demonstrations in 2012 after

the fatal gang-rape of a physiotherapy student

in a moving bus in Delhi.

The woman, whom the media referred to as Nirbhaya, which means “fearless”, died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital. Under Indian law, the identity of rape victims is supposed to be protected. 

Her rape and death triggered massive street protests, forcing the government to change laws, including introducing the death penalty for serial rapists. Four of the men convicted of the crime were hanged in 2020. 

More recently, India’s top wrestlers, including Olympic medallists, sat on weeks-long protests in 2023 accusing then Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a powerful politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party, of sexual harassment.

After much delay, the protests, which led to an outpouring of public support, forced the police to open investigations against him, and charges were framed against him in May.

Many have called the R.G. Kar hospital victim’s case India’s second Nirbhaya moment, and hope the protests will lead to speedy justice for the victim.

Explaining why this case has led to such massive protests, Dr Ranjana Kumari, director of the New Delhi-based Centre for Social Research, noted: “A woman is not safe within a government hospital, which is her workplace. There are so many people moving around in the hospital. And then there is the gruesomeness of the case.”

She noted that the 2012 case was equally gruesome.

Protests have also broken out beyond the medical fraternity, with scores of women in many cities holding night protests and candlelight vigils to highlight how women have the right to feel safe in public places.

Dr Kumari noted a lack of trust in the entire justice system. 

“Justice is not being delivered, so criminals are not worried. Nothing has changed (since 2012). Things will change when there is political will and a real determination in society to change.” 

In the current case, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is feeling the political heat and growing public sentiment amid accusation that the state police dragged their feet in investigating the case and allowed a mob of men to ransack the hospital and assault doctors on Aug 15. The police have denied any lapses.

Women activists have now joined doctors in demanding the passage of the proposed Central Protection Act for Doctors, which was introduced in the Lower House of Parliament in 2022, and prescribed a five-year prison sentence for violence against doctors. But the Act has yet to be passed.

The government felt that there are other laws, like the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, under which violence against doctors can be addressed. Still, doctors are demanding the separate Act that clearly defines what constitutes violence against doctors.

“They need to bring in the Central Protection Act. If anything happens, there is strong punishment,” said Dr Jyothi R, a Bengaluru-based doctor and national convener of the Indian Medical Association Junior Doctors’ Network. 

Violence against doctors affects both male and female doctors. In 2019, doctors at Kolkata’s Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital went on a protest after two junior doctors were physically assaulted by a mob after the death of a 75-year-old patient in the hospital. This triggered protests in the state. 

The violence was fuelled by different reasons. They include lack of affordable healthcare, coupled with a sentiment that hospitals are extorting money from patients while not delivering proper healthcare. 

But doctors say they understand why patients get emotional or angry when they get bad news, and noted that everything could not be blamed on the doctor. 

A 2017 survey by the Indian Medical Association found that about 82.7 percent of doctors feel extreme stress, with fear of violence the top source of tension for 46.3 per cent of the doctors polled. Other reasons included fear of being sued (24.2 per cent) and fear of criminal prosecution (13.7 per cent).

A female doctor, who did not want to be named, said she had faced mob fury after a child under her hospital’s care died. “The mob came after us. The nurses locked themselves in one room and doctors in another. We even shoved tables against the door. It is sad to say, but this is common.”

But now the medical fraternity finds itself at a crossroads following the rape and murder case. 

Doctors said the issue of violence against them has to be addressed. “During (the Covid-19 pandemic), we stepped up. Now it’s time for society to step up for us,” said one young female doctor.