India: Doctors Refuse to End Protests After Colleague’s Rape and Murder

Thousands of junior doctors in India today, Monday, refused to end their protests following the rape and murder of their colleague. The movement, which includes a strike from providing medical services, has disrupted hospital operations for nearly a week since the start of nationwide mobilizations demanding increased security in workplaces and swift implementation of criminal procedures.

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Doctors across the country are staging protests, refusing to treat non-emergency patients after the killing of a 31-year-old doctor on August 9. Police say she was raped and murdered in a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata, where she was an intern.

Authorities have arrested a police volunteer, accusing him of committing the crime. Women’s rights advocates say the incident highlights the ongoing suffering of women in India from sexual violence, despite the tightening of penalties after the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.

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The government is urging doctors to return to work as a committee is formed to propose measures to improve the protection of healthcare workers.

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Aniket Mahata, spokesperson for the junior doctors participating in the protests at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, where the incident occurred, said, “Our refusal to work and sit-in will continue indefinitely until our demands are met.”