India's Supreme Court on Tuesday set up a national task force of doctors to recommend measures to ensure safety at their workplaces, days after a junior doctor was raped and murdered in a hospital, sparking national outrage.
The August 9 attack in the eastern city of Kolkata has sparked nationwide protests as people demand justice for the victim and better security for women in hospitals, while doctors in several places refuse to treat non-emergency patients.
A police volunteer has been arrested for the crime and federal police have taken over the investigation. Public outrage and protests over violence against women are reminiscent of what happened after the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.
The Supreme Court, which took up the case on its own, ordered federal police to submit a report on the status of their investigation on Thursday.
He also ordered the deployment of a federal paramilitary force to the hospital where the crime occurred to provide security to the female doctors who complained of not feeling safe after the crime and the vandalism of the hospital by unidentified men.
The court suggested that the task force consider sweeping reforms including security at medical facilities, separate break rooms for female staff, adequate lighting across the campus, CCTV coverage and creation of employee panels to conduct quarterly security audits.
“If women cannot go to a workplace and be safe, then we are denying them the basic conditions of equality,” said Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, who headed a three-judge bench.
The court ordered the task force to submit an interim report within three weeks and a final report within two months, and asked doctors who have been on leave across the country to resume their duties as soon as possible.
“It is our sincere request to doctors across the country who have stopped working… we are here to ensure their safety and protection,” the court said.
Activists say the incident has highlighted how women in India continue to suffer sexual violence despite tougher laws enacted after the 2012 gang rape and murder in New Delhi.
Thousands of people blocked railway tracks for hours in the western state of Maharashtra on Tuesday, disrupting train services as they protested against the alleged sexual abuse of two four-year-old girls by a cleaner at a school on the outskirts of the financial capital Mumbai.
Police said the man has been arrested and state Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has promised the case will be tried in a fast-track court.
