NEW DELHI: The majority of doctors in India remained off duty on Sunday after a strike was called by the country’s biggest association of doctors to demand quick justice for a colleague who was raped and murdered.
Doctors across India staged protests and marches and refused to see non-emergency patients in the past week after the killing of the 31-year-old postgraduate student on August 9 in Kolkata.
Women activists say the incident at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital has shown the world how women in India continue to suffer.
“My daughter is gone but millions of sons and daughters are now with me,” the father of the victim told the media referring to the protesting doctors. “This has given me a lot of strength and I feel we will gain something out of it,” he said.
India introduced major changes to the criminal justice system, including tougher sentences, after the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012. However, rights activists say little has changed and not enough has been done to deter violence against women.
The Indian Medical Association, whose strike ended at 6 am on Sunday, told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that as 60 percent of India’s doctors are women, he must take some actions to ensure the safety of the hospital staff.
“All healthcare professionals deserve peaceful ambience, safety, and security at the workplace,” it said in a letter to Modi.
In Modi’s home state of Gujarat, more than 6,000 trainee doctors in government hospitals stayed away from non-emergency medical services on Sunday for a third day.
“We have unanimously decided to continue our protest to press for our demands,” said Dr. Dhaval Gameti, president of the Junior Doctors’ Association at B.J. Medical College in Ahmedabad.
The government has asked doctors to come back to duty to treat increasing cases of dengue and malaria while it forms a committee to propose measures to improve protection for healthcare professionals.
The All India Residents and Junior Doctors’ Joint Action Forum on Saturday said it would continue a countrywide cease-work with a 72-hour deadline for authorities to hold a detailed inquiry and make arrests.
