Physician’s 3 AM Encounter At Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital

The Kolkata rape-murder incident recalled recollections of the 2012 gang rape in a Delhi bus (file).

Kolkata:

5 years in the past, the federal government of West Bengal pledged to clamp down on violence in opposition to medical doctors. It promised public hospitals higher safety tools, ladies guards to help feminine physicians and managed entry factors, in response to an inner authorities memo seen by Reuters. 

None of those measures had been applied on the public hospital the place a younger lady physician was raped and murdered on August 9, allegedly by a police volunteer, 4 trainee medical doctors there instructed Reuters.

As a substitute, within the days main as much as the murder assault, which prompted nationwide outrage and a medical doctors’ strike, solely two male guards manned R.G. Kar Medical Faculty and Hospital, they mentioned. They have been supplemented by just a few closed-circuit cameras that didn’t comprehensively cowl the sprawling premises, in response to the trainees. 

However within the wake of her dying, colleagues are talking out. Dr Shreya Shaw, a postgraduate trainee at R.G. Kar Hospital, mentioned she discovered two strangers shaking her awake at round 3 a.m. when she was sleeping in a chosen restroom, which didn’t have locks. 

“It was initially fairly scary to get up to unknown males at midnight,” she mentioned, including that she was shocked the sufferers may enter the ground the place she was resting with out being stopped.

One of many doorways of the lecture corridor the place the physician had been resting throughout a 36-hour shift when she was attacked had no lock, mentioned two different trainee medical doctors who had additionally slept there. The air-con within the designated break room had malfunctioned, they mentioned.

After two medical doctors at a special hospital have been assaulted by a affected person’s kin in 2019, West Bengal had promised to put in “efficient safety tools and methods,” regulate entry and exit to hospital premises and create a compensation coverage for assaulted employees, in response to the state well being division memo dated June 17, 2019. 

The 2-page doc, which is reported by Reuters for the primary time, was ready after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met that day with trainee medical doctors protesting the assault on their colleagues as a “report observe” of the interplay. The memo didn’t state to whom it was addressed.

Ms Banerjee had directed officers to take “efficient and immediate” motion “inside a specified timeframe,” in response to the doc. It didn’t element the preparation interval.

“If these measures had been taken, this incident might by no means have occurred,” mentioned Dr Riya Bera, a postgraduate trainee at R.G. Kar, of her colleague’s dying. 

Requested by Reuters concerning the 2019 assurances, West Bengal Well being Secretary N S Nigam mentioned the COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted enhancements for 2 years however “lots” had been executed since 2021, together with strengthening CCTV protection and interesting non-public safety in hospitals.

“We’re dedicated to doing the remaining work and filling the gaps that emerged after the R.G. Kar incident,” he mentioned. 

Ms Banerjee on August 28 additionally introduced that $12 million (Rs 100.6 crore) can be spent to start work on enhancements comparable to higher lighting in well being services, resting areas and feminine safety employees.

The chief minister’s workplace, in addition to R.G. Kar Hospital, didn’t reply to calls in search of remark.

Authorities proceed to research the August 9 incident, for which no prices have but been filed.          

‘PATRIARCHAL ATTITUDES AND BIASES’

The assault on the physician in Kolkata recalled recollections of the 2012 gang rape of a physiotherapist in a Delhi bus, which convulsed India in anger and triggered protests. 

Reuters interviewed 14 feminine medical doctors at authorities hospitals in West Bengal and elsewhere in India about their challenges in a rustic the place ladies’s security is a long-standing concern. 

They described poor working situations, together with aggressive therapy from the households of sufferers and having to sleep on benches in dimly lit corridors because of a scarcity of relaxation services. 

Some medical doctors spoke of napping in break rooms with no locks throughout prolonged shifts, solely to have individuals barging in. Others described confronting male sufferers who photographed them with out permission, claiming that they have been documenting proof of their therapy. 

Indian Medical Affiliation (IMA) President RV Asokan instructed Reuters that whereas the August 9 murder assault seemed to be distinctive in its brutality, “the truth that anyone can stroll in reveals the vulnerability of the place, and this when increasingly more ladies are becoming a member of the occupation.”

Some medical doctors have taken self-defence measures: One physician at a hospital in Odisha state, which neighbours West Bengal, mentioned her father gave her a knife to push back potential attackers.

Dr Gauri Seth, a postgraduate trainee at Medical Faculty, Kolkata, instructed Reuters that after the August 9 incident, she wouldn’t go on obligation once more with out carrying a pepper spray or scalpel to defend herself. 

About 60% of India’s medical doctors are feminine, and three-quarters of them have described being victims of verbal abuse, bodily assaults and different harassment whereas on obligation, in response to the IMA, the nation’s largest group of physicians.

“As a consequence of ingrained patriarchal attitudes and biases, kin of sufferers usually tend to problem ladies medical professionals…(they) additionally face completely different types of sexual violence on the office,” the Supreme Court docket wrote in an August 20 ruling ordering the creation of a job power on medical staff’ security. 

India launched robust legal guidelines governing crimes in opposition to ladies following the 2012 Delhi gang rape, together with increasing the definition of rape to incorporate all penetration with out consent, in addition to criminalizing voyeurism and stalking. 

However the state of affairs stays bleak, in response to activists and authorities information. 

Nearly 450,000 crimes in opposition to ladies have been reported in 2022 – the newest 12 months for which information is out there – up 4% on 2021, authorities information present. Greater than 7% of the alleged crimes have been rape-related. 

Lawyer and rights activist Vrinda Grover blamed insufficient coaching for police investigators and broader cultural points. 

“What may be very disturbing on this case is the ordinariness of what the sufferer was doing: she was in her office,” she mentioned. “There’s something fallacious with a society the place such conduct is so commonplace.”

LIVING HER DREAM

The 31-year Kolkata doctor, whose battered, half-naked physique was discovered by colleagues, had at all times needed to be a health care provider, members of the family and associates instructed Reuters. 

“Once I ran into her final 12 months, she instructed me she was very pleased and was dwelling her dream,” mentioned Somojit Moulik, who had studied with the sufferer in medical college. 

When Reuters visited the sufferer’s household house, the nameplate bore solely her identify with the prefix Dr, in a sign of how extremely her kin valued her achievements. 

Her aunt mentioned in an interview that her niece had been set to marry a doctor she had studied with later this 12 months, and that she had not complained about questions of safety at work.