Monday, 07 October 2024
Monday, 07 October 2024
Quiet but intense.
That is the best description for the mood at the site in central Calcutta where seven junior doctors are on hunger strike until death in protest against what they call the Mamata Banerjee government’s inaction on their demands to clean up the healthcare system in Bengal in the aftermath of the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
When The Telegraph Online visited the protest site on the third day of the junior doctors’ hunger strike, a few doctors were lying down, exhausted from the heat and strain, while others took turns speaking on the microphone.
“I have been a part of this protest since the beginning,” Subhashis Saha, 32, a second-year postgraduate trainee at KPC Medical College, told The Telegraph Online. “Since all our rallies and requests to the government did not work well, these doctors are sitting here for nearly 38 hours fasting, which they had never expected in their life.
“What we look forward to as doctors is treating patients and making the society better,” Saha added. “But for the betterment of society my colleagues have to sit on hunger strike. I am shattered when I see them, I am unable to watch them. I am trying to distract myself by looking away as I am breaking down.”
Professors and colleagues of the fasting doctors, visibly concerned and emotional, had come to show their support. On Monday, a few senior doctors joined in a 24-hour hunger strike in solidarity with the protesting junior doctors.
Anuradha Mitra, 62, a professor of anaesthesiology at KPC Medical College, told The Telegraph Online that she was concerned about the junior doctors.
“My students are in a very distressed condition for the last two months,” she said. “They have been facing a harrowing experience and are unable to concentrate on their studies. They are trying to do their emergency duties but concentration is lacking for obvious reasons. We are trying to resolve the issues of threat culture and we look forward to resolving all the issues. Personally, I am hopeful but I have not yet seen any positive response from our state administration. One of my students, Sayantani Ghosh, is sitting on an indefinite fast and I am extremely worried. Aniket Mahato, who is also an anaesthesia student, joined the indefinite fast yesterday [Sunday] and their exams are one-and-half months away. How can they concentrate?. I will not celebrate Durga Puja this year.”
A biodegradable toilet was installed at the protest site on Monday. Where the doctors are on fast, a large whiteboard displays the blood pressure and capillary blood glucose (CBG) levels of the doctors on hunger strike.
A junior doctor angrily criticised the state government over the microphone and asked how they could celebrate Durga Puja this year when their colleague had been brutally raped and murdered.
“There is a deep-rooted criminalisation and corruption in our system that needs to be fixed,” Subrata Ray, 62, another professor of anaesthesiology at KPC Medical College, told The Telegraph Online.
“I am a part of the system and I have a guilty feeling that we could not protect our students like our children. This is a very alarming situation for our state. I passed out from Calcutta Medical College in 1985. There was corruption back then also, but the education system was by and large fair. This is very painful to see that now the education system is also corrupted, I will not celebrate Durga Puja this year.”
The protest site, though filled with a stream of people, was not really spilling over with people. The junior doctors expressed gratitude to the public for their support.
“Ever since this incident happened with our didi, we have been involved in this,” Rishita Roy, 24, a second-year MBBS student at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, told The Telegraph Online.
“The issue of safety and security in our college still remains. Whoever has done this is still not caught and we think this can be repeated with us also,” Roy said. “As a female student I am very scared. I am protesting so that we get a concrete solution – that this incident will never be repeated again. My seniors are sitting here and the state government is not bothered. Durga Puja is the victory of good over evil; we have not received our victory, I will do Puja, but I will not return to celebrations.”
The seven doctors on hunger strike are Snigdha Hazra, Tanaya Panja, and Anustup Mukhopadhyay from Calcutta Medical College, Arnab Mukhopadhyay from SSKM, Pulastha Acharya from NRS Medical College and Sayantani Ghosh Hazra from KPC Medical College and Aniket Mahato from RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
“I passed out from RG Kar Medical college in 2001, I am shocked over this incident,” said Dr Munmun Kirtana, 46, who joined in the junior doctors hunger strike on Monday on a 24-hour fast.
“For the last two months I cannot eat or sleep well. Throughout the day, the thought that justice has not been delivered yet bothers me. The state administration is not cooperating at all, they are not doing their duty. How can I celebrate Durga Puja in such a situation?”
