Indian medical workers and activists continued to protest the rape and murder of a female intern doctor, demanding immediate justice by taking to the streets in several parts of the country on Sunday (Aug. 18).
Doctors across India have protested, held candlelight rallies in solidarity and refused to serve non-emergency patients over the past week following the murder of a postgraduate medical student in the early hours of August 9 in Kolkata.
Women protesters said the incident at the RG Kar Medical College campus and hospital had highlighted how women in India continue to suffer, despite stricter laws following the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012.
Asstha Bajaj, one of the protesters and a medical student, said, “When we go to work in hospitals, we convince our parents that we are safe, because we are in a hospital. Our parents are also calm, thinking we are safe because we are in a hospital. But today even hospitals are not safe and anything can happen to you anywhere, anytime. And we have gathered here today to demand our safety.”
India made major changes to its criminal justice system, including tougher sentences, after the 2012 attacks. But activists say little has changed and not enough has been done to prevent violence against women.
The country's largest doctors' association, the Indian Medical Association, whose strike ended at 6 a.m. Sunday, told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that because 60 percent of doctors in India are women, he needed to intervene to ensure hospital staff were protected by security protocols like those at airports. (rd/ab)
