Junior doctors, students and others endured rain and waterlogged streets to walk in a rally from College Square to Shyambazar on Sunday afternoon demanding “justice” for the raped and murdered junior doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Among the demands raised in the rally were quick arrest of all involved in the ghastly crime, removal of senior officials of RG Kar who were in administrative positions when the postgraduate trainee was raped and murdered, denying them administrative roles elsewhere and enhanced security for those working in hospitals.
The women doctors who walked in the rally said the state government’s suggestion to hospitals to avoid assigning night shifts to women is unrealistic. The majority of nurses are women and there are more nurses than doctors on night duty at any hospital, one of them said.
“Hospitals will not function if women are not assigned night duty,” she said.
The protesting doctors at RG Kar said their cease-work will continue as the government has yet to accede to their demands.
The rally started at College Square around 1.30pm and went through MG Road, CR Avenue and Bhupen Bose Avenue before ending at the Shyambazar five-point crossing around 5pm.
Large stretches of the rally route were flooded. It kept raining for much of the duration of the march but the protesters walked on, raising slogans.
“We want safety, we want security. My parents are very afraid. This can happen to
any of us. I am walking because I want everyone to know that we are asking for justice,” said Nidhi Agarwal, a third-year postgraduate trainee at RG Kar.
“In hindsight, I think we were believing that we were safe because nothing like this had happened. However, there is actually very little safety,” she said.
Snigdha Hazra, a senior resident at Medical College Kolkata, said they needed to work without fear.
As for the government’s suggestion that women be spared night duty, Hazra
said: “The decision to not assign night duty to women is impractical. More than doctors, there are nurses in hospitals and they are women. There are more nurses than doctors on a night shift.”
“Wherever possible, night duty may be avoided for women to the extent possible,” the state government had said in an advisory on Saturday.
One of the slogans being raised by the protesting doctors at RG Kar since the start of their cease-work has been “No Safety, No Duty”.
Multiple rallies were organised by doctors, including medics from private
hospitals, over the past week. Doctors in private hospitals stayed away from OPD
and rescheduled surgeries on Saturday.
Normal services will resume in private hospitals on Monday. “We will be back in OPDs, and will conduct surgeries and procedures from Monday,” said a doctor at a private hospital.
Junior doctors formed the overwhelming majority of those who walked in Sunday’s rally but there were others, too.
A Class XII student joined the rally after writing the entrance test for the undergraduate law programme at Calcutta University.
“This is not just about a doctor. This can happen to any of us. My mother encouraged me to join this rally,” said Maisha Bilkis, who joined the rally with her mother.
Many marchers said they were not used to walking in the rain, but the occasion demanded that they brave the downpour and raise their voice demanding justice for the junior doctor.
“We want all the culprits to be arrested, fast. The investigation is taking a lot of time and only one person has been arrested so far,” said a junior doctor.
