{"id":7269,"date":"2024-08-16T16:20:05","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T10:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=7269"},"modified":"2024-08-16T16:20:05","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T10:35:05","slug":"indian-doctor-strikes-protests-grow-after-colleagues-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/indian-doctor-strikes-protests-grow-after-colleagues-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian doctor strikes, protests grow after colleague’s murder"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Indian doctors said Friday they would increase nationwide protests and strikes after the rape and murder of a colleague, a brutal killing that has focused outrage on the chronic issue of violence against women.<\/p>\n

The discovery of the 31-year-old’s bloodied and brutalised body on August 9 at a state-run hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata has sparked nationwide protests.<\/p>\n

“We are intensifying our protests… to demand justice for our colleague,” Suvrankar Datta said Friday, from the government-run All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital in New Delhi.<\/p>\n

Those in government hospitals across several states on Monday halted elective services “indefinitely” in protest.<\/p>\n

Multiple medical unions in both government and private systems have backed the strike.<\/p>\n

Thousands marched through the streets of Kolkata overnight Wednesday to condemn the killing, with a candlelight rally at midnight coinciding with the start of India’s independence day celebrations.<\/p>\n

The Indian Medical Association has called for a “nationwide withdrawal of services” for 24 hours starting Saturday, with suspension of all non-essential and medical procedures at private hospitals.<\/p>\n

Indian media have reported that the murdered doctor was found in the teaching hospital’s seminar hall, suggesting she had gone there for a brief rest during a long shift.<\/p>\n

An autopsy has confirmed sexual assault, and in a petition to the court, the victim’s parents have said that they suspected their daughter was gang-raped, according to Indian broadcaster NDTV.<\/p>\n

– ‘Atrocities’ –
\nThough police have detained a man who worked at the hospital helping people navigate busy queues, state government officers have been accused of mishandling the case.<\/p>\n

Sexual violence against women is a widespread problem in India — an average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022 in the country of 1.4 billion people.<\/p>\n

For many, the gruesome nature of the attack has invoked comparisons with the horrific 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus.<\/p>\n

The woman became a symbol of the socially conservative country’s failure to tackle sexual violence against women.<\/p>\n

Her death sparked huge, and at times violent, demonstrations in Delhi and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Under pressure, the government introduced harsher penalties for rapists, and the death penalty for repeat offenders.<\/p>\n

Several new sexual offences were also introduced, including for stalking, and officials who refuse to register rape complaints can now be jailed.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday demanded swift punishment for those who commit “monstrous” deeds against women,<\/p>\n

“There is anger for atrocities committed against our mothers and sisters,” Modi said.<\/p>\n

“Crimes against women should be quickly investigated; monstrous behaviour against women should be severely and quickly punished.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indian doctors said Friday they would increase nationwide protests and strikes after the rape and murder of a colleague, a brutal killing that has focused outrage on the chronic issue of violence against women. The discovery of the 31-year-old’s bloodied and brutalised body on August 9 at a state-run hospital in the eastern city of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7271,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7269\/revisions\/7271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}