KOLKATA: Hundreds of thousands of women marched through the night with candles in their hands in cities across India to protest the brutal rape and murder of a young doctor at a hospital, fuelling anger over the lack of safety for women despite tough new laws.
A 31-year-old junior doctor was raped and murdered inside the Kolkata medical college where she worked on Friday, sparking nationwide protests among doctors and drawing parallels with the notorious gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012.
“We have come here to demand justice because I also have a daughter. I am scared to send her anywhere… I am scared to send my daughter to study,” said Rinky Ghosh, who took part in a protest in Kolkata. “That is why I am here today because something has to be done… this injustice has to be stopped.”
The doctor had retired to sleep on a piece of carpet in a seminar room at RG Kar Medical College after a marathon 36-hour shift, given the lack of dormitories or rest rooms for doctors at the facility, her colleagues said. Reuters.
She was found dead on Friday. Police said she had been raped and murdered and a police volunteer was later arrested in connection with the crime.
Many government hospitals in cities across India suspended all services except emergency departments earlier this week as junior doctors sat outside in protest, demanding justice.
The victim was found bleeding from the eyes and mouth, with wounds to the legs, stomach, ankles, right hand and finger, according to an Aug. 9 medical investigation report seen by the police. Reuters saying.
In protests dubbed “Reclaim the Night,” women marched across cities across India from midnight on Wednesday, on the eve of the country's 78th Independence Day, to protest against the lack of safety for women in India, especially at night.
The 2012 Delhi rape case was seen as a turning point in attitudes towards women's safety in Indian society. It sparked huge protests and was the catalyst for a rapid shift in laws addressing crimes against women.
These measures included fast-track courts for quicker convictions in such cases, but protesters say that a decade on, the situation for women has not improved.
“This horrific incident has reminded us once again that women disproportionately bear the burden of ensuring their own safety,” Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt said in a post on her Instagram page, which has more than 85 million followers.
Doctors at India's overcrowded and often substandard public hospitals have long complained of being overworked and underpaid, and say not enough is being done to curb violence directed against them by people angry at the care they are offered.
Crimes against women in India rose 4% in 2022 from the previous year, data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released late last year showed.
