Indian doctors launch 24-hour services shutdown over Kolkata horror; here are their key demands

Doctors in India have called in for a nationwide shutdown of non-emergency medical services in protest of the brutal sexual assault and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata earlier this month. The heightened sense of insecurity was aggravated earlier this week when a mob of unidentified people assaulted medical professionals at Kolkata's RG Kar hospital where the trainee doctor was criminally assaulted before being killed.

The services shutdown has coincided with the findings of a probe by the National Commission for Women which found lapses in security, infrastructure, and investigation after theKolkatatrainee doctor was sexually assaulted and killed.

The medical professionals of the world's biggest democracy are calling for humanised working and living conditions for resident doctors.

What Indian Medical Association is demanding?

The Indian Medical Association has issued five key demands. This includes the implementation of a central law to prevent violence against doctors in hospital settings.

Here are the key demands put forth by the IMA:

1. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has called for an overhaul of the working conditions of resident doctors, highlighting the 36-hour duty shift the victim at RG Kar Hospital was subjected to and the absence of safe rest spaces.

Also watch |Kolkata Horror: Doctors Rage across India, plan 24-hour Strike

2. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has urged the incorporation of the 2023 amendments to the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 into the proposed Hospital Protection Bill of 2019.

3. The IMA has also called for a thorough and professional investigation into the Kolkata crime in a time-bound manner. The medical professionals have also called upon West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's government to identify those responsible for the vandalism at RG Kar Hospital on the night of August 14 and ensure that the law takes its due course.

4. The IMA has urged that hospital security protocols be elevated to the same level as airport security. It has asked for the hospitals to be designated as safe zones with the installation of CCTV cameras and the deployment of security personnel.

5. The IMA has also called for appropriate and dignified compensation for the bereaved family, reflecting the severity of the crime.

'Entire department is suspect': Deceased doctor's father

Speaking to reporters, the father of the deceased trainee doctor in theRG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape-death case said, "My daughter left for duty at around 8:10 am on that day. She was on OPD and last spoke to her mother at around 11:15 PM. In the morning when my wife was calling her, her phone was ringing but no one picked up, by that time my daughter died. The matter of concern is that from 3 AM to 10 AM, nobody needed her, despite she was an on-duty doctor. All the people who are protesting on the streets are like my sons and daughters. My daughter has passed away but crores of children are standing with me now...She had to face some problems in college, the entire department was a suspect... All those who are protesting, we are with them... I spoke to the officials of CBI yesterday but I cannot say anything else since the matter is subjudice."