FILE PHOTO: A doctor holds a banner during a protest demanding justice following the rape and murder of a trainee medic at a hospital in Kolkata, in New Delhi, India, August 19, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Supreme Court created a hospital safety task force on Tuesday to recommend steps to ensure medical workers' safety, days after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor caused national outrage and protests by junior doctors.
The attack on Aug. 9 in the eastern city of Kolkata has triggered demands for justice for the victim and greater safety for women at hospitals, with doctors in several places refusing to see non-emergency patients.
A police volunteer has been arrested for the crime and the federal police have taken over the investigation. The public anger and protests over violence against women is reminiscent of what followed the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.
"If women cannot go to a place of work and be safe, then we are denying them the basic conditions of equality," said Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, who headed a three-judge bench of the court.
The court suggested the doctor-led task force consider sweeping reforms to make medical establishments safer for staff, but hundreds of the junior doctors who have been staying away from work in protest said they were not satisfied and would keep on demonstrating.
"Legislation alone will not solve these problems; we need a comprehensive overhaul of the system," the national body of trainee and junior doctors said in a statement, adding that the court's directives did not address the "core problem" of inadequate healthcare funding and staffing.
The Supreme Court, which took up the case on its own, directed the federal police to submit a report on the status of its investigation into the trainee doctor's killing on Thursday.
It also ordered a federal paramilitary force to be deployed at the hospital where the crime took place to provide security to female doctors who complained they did not feel safe after the crime and vandalism at the hospital carried out by unidentified men.
The court suggested the task force consider safety measures including separate resting rooms for female staff, adequate lighting across the campus, CCTV coverage, and creation of employee panels to conduct quarterly safety audits.
It told the panel to submit an interim report within three weeks and a final report within two months, and asked doctors abstaining from work across the nation to resume duties at the earliest.
"It is our earnest request to doctors all over the country who have stopped work ... we are here to ensure their safety and protection," the court said.
Women's rights activists say the incident has highlighted how women in India continue to suffer from sexual violence despite tougher laws brought in after the notorious 2012 gang rape and murder in New Delhi.
On Tuesday, thousands of people blocked railway tracks for hours in the western state of Maharashtra, disrupting train services as they protested against the alleged sexual abuse of two, four-year-old girls by a cleaner at a school outside the financial capital of Mumbai.
Police said the man has been arrested and state Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said the case would be tried in a fast-track court.
(Reporting by Sakshi Dayal in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi in New Delhi, Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai and Subrata Nag Choudhury in Kolkata; Writing by Shivam Patel and Sakshi Dayal; Editing by YP Rajesh, Kim Coghill and Helen Popper)
