Day three of the demonstrations against the rape and murder of a female doctor at RG Kar Medical College has evolved into a midnight protest demonstration on 14th of August, symbolising a collective outrage and a demand for justice.
Five days after the gruesome incident, the protest is not restricted to Bengal. It has spread to premier non-medical institutes and other metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru and Gurgaon.
“We at IIT Madras have arranged a protest rally today at night, we plan on singing songs to voice out our anguish,” Alipriyo Hoory, a student of IIT Madras, told The Telegraph Online.
“We will try to avoid sloganeering because the Dean’s office has directed us to refrain from using any political/non-political slogans,” Hoory said.
A final year MTech student from IIT Kharagpur, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Telegraph Online on Wednesday, “Independence day is not just about the past freedom struggles, it’s about fighting for a future where women can live without fear. “Together, we must see the end of this", she added.
In cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, and even among Indian-origin female medics in the UK, the call for justice has grown louder.
Sreenanda Shankar, speaking from Mumbai, shared her thoughts with The Telegraph Online: "I am planning to attend a protest in Andheri West."
"Though this is not as big as the Calcutta one, I have shared it so that more people can come forward and support the cause. I am trying to get more people to go with me..my question is, how the hell do we stop this?", she added.
“We have worked in those spaces fearlessly just 30 years ago, when the shield of the white clinical apron was like a ‘Lakshman Rekha’ and everyone called us ‘Daktar Didi’. How did the attitudes change so drastically that no space is deemed safe for kids and women now?” Deepti Jain, a National Health Service (NHS) geriatrician, based in Brighton, who trained as a medical graduate at a hospital in Calcutta, told the Press Trust of India.
As India strides into its 78th Independence Day on August 15, its half a billion women demand safety, security, and justice, reclaiming their space on its streets.
