The Rape and Murder of a Medic Leads to Nationwide Physician Strike Across India

Nearly 300,000 resident doctors of government hospitals in India have been on strike since Monday after a 31-year-old resident trainee doctor was raped and murdered while working in Kolkata, the capital of India’s West Bengal state. As a result, elective and non-emergency procedures have been halted.

Her body was found last Friday in a seminar room at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where she worked. A suspect has since been arrested, according to reports. 

In addition to the doctor strikes, women’s rights activists have mobilized to demand safer conditions for women across the country. Thousands of women in the state of West Bengal are planning to hold a “Reclaim the Night” march that will begin at 11:55 p.m. on Wednesday, according to The Hindustan Times. The protest will coincide with the official start to India’s Independence day, which will happen on Thursday, August 15. 

“This heartbreaking incident starkly highlights the glaring deficiencies in security within our medical institutions across the nation,” the Federation of Resident Doctors Association India (FORDA) said in a statement posted on X (formerly known as Twitter.)

On Wednesday, photos showed dozens of female doctors gathering outside the Government General Hospital in Vijayawada and Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad holding signs saying “We demand safety and security in our workplace” and “Hands that heal should not bleed.”

Dr. Arjun Dasgupta, who works as senior ENT consultant at the CMRI hospital, a private medical facility in Kolkata, has canceled his clinic and elective surgeries in solidarity with the junior doctors protesting. He says that the incident has shaken him to his core. “I don’t think anybody in the whole of India has heard of such a horrific incident where a girl was raped and murdered in the seminar room of her institution,” he tells TIME.

Dasgupta says that government hospitals often lack the basic accommodations, such as on-call rooms with locks on the doors.

“In the government hospitals the workplace situation is horrible… we are seeing a spate of violence against doctors, including women doctors, and as a rule, nothing kind of happens to [the perpetrators].” 

In the aftermath of the incident, FORDA has demanded that the government pass the Central Protection Act for Doctors, which they say will ensure the safety of health care workers across the country by creating a uniform definition of what violence entails and establishing clear penalties for perpetrators. FORDA is demanding that a committee be established to help expedite the ratification of the law and an immediate, transparent, and impartial investigation into the crime. 

On Tuesday, FAIMA, the Federation of All India Medical Association, also announced in a statement on X that it would participate in the strike. “This heinous crime exposes the alarming lack of security in our hospital premises. Today, this atrocity occurred in Kolkata; tomorrow, it could happen anywhere else,” FAIMA said in its statement. FAIMA is demanding the suspension of the former principal of RG Kar Medical College, where the incident took place, and has echoed FORDA’s demands for a committee to be created to draft a Central Protection Act for Doctors.

Currently, 25 out of India’s 28 states have laws in place to protect doctors and healthcare workers from violence, according to the Indian Medical Association. However, Dasgupta says that the laws are mostly ineffective and that a central law passed by the national government would be more likely to be enforced. 

“The problem is the lack of awareness. Most of the police in our state are not even aware that such a law exists,” says Dasgupta. “If a central law comes with more fanfare and media coverage, hopefully the police up and down the country will be aware of it.”

A 2015 survey conducted by the Indian Medical Association found that 75% of doctors had experienced some form of violence while on the job. Dasgupta says doctors are especially vulnerable because they often deal with intense life or death situations, and patients do not always survive, which can  lead to anger from the patients’ loved ones. That’s especially common in poorer and more rural areas where patients lack basic education and are distrustful of doctors, Dasgupta notes.

“One of the first stages of grief is anger, and we want to blame somebody, and the doctor is in front of you, so the doctor is very easy to blame,” he says.

R.V. Asokan, the president of the National Indian Medical Association, told the Indian television station NDTV, that he is especially worried about protection for female doctors who may be more vulnerable to sexual assault and harassment.

“There is a need for an overall comprehensive relook at the whole system and the amenities provided,” R.V. Asokan, the president of the National Indian Medical Association, told the Indian television station NDTV. He also called for the installation of CCTV cameras in health care facilities and said that hospitals across the country should be declared “safe zones.” He said these actions were especially important as increasing numbers of women enroll in medical school in India.

India struggles with high rates of violence against women, with over 31,000 rapes reported in 2022. Experts say that the true rate is likely much higher, as many women do not report due to fear of reprisal and stigma. Several high profile rape cases have led to protests across the country in recent years, with activists demanding safer conditions for women. Most infamous of all these cases was a 2012 a gang rape of a physiotherapy student on a bus in New Delhi, which was condemned around the world. The incident led to legislative changes in how India prosecutes sexual assault cases and more severe punishments for perpetrators.

Nevertheless, Kolkata is largely perceived as one of India’s safer cities, and was named the safest city in India by the Times of India for three years in a row between 2021 and 2023.

“Other than being a doctor, as a parent it shocks you,” says Dasgupta. “Kolkata is supposed to be quite a safe city… So when my daughter comes home late at night, I assume she will be fine… but now nothing assures me of that.”

Correction, Aug. 16, 2024

The original version of this story misstated the first name of a doctor in Kolkata. The doctor's name is Dr. Arjun Dasgupta, not Dr. Sanjay Dasgupta.