An association of Indian doctors called for more than a million colleagues nationwide to provide only essential services today, in a protest over the brutal rape and murder of a medic that is set to be the biggest such strike in recent times.
Anger over the crime showed no signs of dying down a week after the 31-year-old doctor was found dead on a blood-soaked mattress in the medical college where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata.
She had settled down for a short nap on a carpet in a college lecture hall after working for nearly 20 hours of a 36-hour shift, staff at the R G Kar Medical College said.
Anger at the failure of tough laws to deter a rising tide of violence against women has fuelled protests by doctors and women’s groups.
“The emotions are different this time,” R V Asokan, the president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the largest grouping of practitioners, with 400,000 members, said.
“Women form the majority of our profession in this country. Time and again, we have asked for safety for them.”
Late on Thursday, the IMA called on practising doctors in India, a figure it estimates to exceed a million, to shut down all services nationwide, except emergency departments, for 24 hours from today morning.
Political parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in the opposition in the state of West Bengal, whose capital is Kolkata, said they would hold protests in the city.
Bollywood actors, other celebrities and politicians have voiced shock at the crime, calling for stricter punishment for perpetrators.
A low-earning police volunteer, designated to help local police officers and their families who needed to be admitted to the hospital, has been arrested and charged with the crime, but protesters say that is not enough. — Reuters
