Calcutta wades into another weekend of protests with a junior doctors’ march and multiple protests planned across the city on Saturday over the rape and murder of the posgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
Protesters will also be out on the streets of Jadavpur near the 8B bus stand for another episode of Reclaim the Night from 8pm Saturday to 8am Sunday.
Supporters of both East Bengal and Mohun Bagan have called for a human chain that will begin from Ultadanga at one end till Kadapara and from the Ruby Crossing till Building More, surrounding the stadium from 5pm to 7pm before the Indian Super League derby at the Salt Lake stadium.
The protests are timed to highlight that it has been 70 days since August 9.
The doctors’ rally will start from Sodepur in Panihati, around 17 km from the city, at 2pm. It will take a circuitous route, passing through several locations before concluding at Dorina crossing, where the doctors are on hunger strike, at Esplanade around 9:30pm.
“We have decided on this route to cover maximum areas and locations,” Agnidipta Mukherjee, a second-year postgraduate trainee student at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, told The Telegraph Online.
“We aim to cover maximum areas and involve a good number of people. Our representatives from WBJDF [West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front] will be there in different areas to include people for mass protest. We have received huge support from common people so that another Abhaya does not take place. Now, this is not just a doctors' movement but a global protest. We have received protest videos from America, Canada, everybody is supporting us as they understand that our demands are valid.”
As Calcutta woke up to a cloudy Saturday, volunteers were preparing for the rally at the hunger strike site despite the rain. The junior doctors on hunger strike were visibly weak.
“After today’s rally, we will have a mass convention tomorrow, we will invite people to join us in that,” a protesting junior doctor from Calcutta Medical College and Hospital told The Telegraph Online.
“In our convention we will announce our upcoming mass activities if our demands are not met. On Monday also we’ll announce some programmes. Before Tuesday, if our demands are not accepted, we will go for a total health system shutdown. However, it also depends upon the government’s response.”
The protesting doctors said they were thankful for the protests being held across the city.
“Reclaim the Night at Jadavpur has been called by one of our friends who have been supporting us from Day 1. It will take place in a different location from 8pm to 8am,” said a protesting junior doctor.
