The Union cabinet on Wednesday cleared an ordinance that amends the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 to prescribe stringent and quick punishment for attacks on health workers.

The medical fraternity has been complaining of harassment and violence against doctors, nurses, paramedics and community health workers from people who apparently fear the healthcare workers would infect them.

Many health workers and even medical students have been asked to leave by their landlords or neighbours.

“The Centre has brought an ordinance to end violence against health workers. It carries imprisonment from six months to seven years if anyone is found guilty,” Union minister for information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said.

According to the ordinance, police investigation of alleged crimes against medical workers must be completed within 30 days and the trial should be over within one year.

Apart from jail terms of six months to seven years, the ordinance prescribes fines ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh. It also allows compensation for death or property damage.

There had till now been no specific law against attacks on health workers. This forced the police to invoke the penal code sections on assault and causing grievous hurt, where the punishments mostly ranged from a few months to a year.

“Health workers who are trying to save the country from this epidemic are unfortunately facing attacks. No incident of violence or harassment against them will be tolerated. The ordinance will be implemented after the President’s sanction,” Javadekar said.

Earlier in the day the Indian Medical Association had called off its proposed “black day” protest on April 23 after a meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah and health minister Harsh Vardhan through videoconferencing.

The doctors’ body — India’s largest — has been demanding that the Centre bring in a law to protect healthcare workers from the rising attacks. It had said that doctors would wear black badges to work across the country on Thursday if the government didn’t act.

In a tweet after the meeting, Shah said: “Safety and dignity of our doctors at their workplace is non-negotiable. It is our collective responsibility to ensure conducive atmosphere for them at all times. I have assured doctors that Modi govt is committed to their cause and appealed to reconsider their proposed protest.”

Health workers and police personnel on Covid-19 duty have faced mob attacks in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Karnataka.

In Chennai, the friends and family of Dr Simon Hercules, who had died of Covid-19, were attacked on Sunday when they took his body to a burial ground. The mob apparently feared the burial would spread the infection.

One of Dr Hercules’s colleagues, an orthopaedist, had to bury him in the middle of the night, using a single shovel, with the help of two hospital ward boys.