Doctors set to resume work but protests continue to rage in Kolkata

Thousands of people from all walks of life join torch rally; doctors to continue sit-in across medical colleges in West Bengal; civil society groups step up pressure for speedy justice

A day after junior doctors called off their ceasework agitation, healthcare workers and thousands of civil society protesters took to the streets of Kolkata on Friday (September 20, 2024) seeking justice for the doctor who was raped and killed at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH) last month.

The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF) took out a rally from the State Health Department headquarters (Swasthya Bhawan) to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office at the CGO Complex around 3 p.m. In the evening, thousands of people from different walks of life joined a 40-km-long relay torch rally from the city’s Hiland Park area to north Kolkata’s Shyambazar.

Three held so far

It has been 41 days since the female trainee doctor was raped and killed on duty at RGKMCH on August 9. So far, the Kolkata Police have arrested one person in connection with the case. Two persons have been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of evidence tampering and delay in filing FIR.

“The State government should not see this [ending ceasework protest] as our weakness,” protesting junior doctor Aniket Mahato said at the rally on Friday (September 20, 2024). “We believe the State government’s directives will be implemented as was promised to us. We are resuming work in emergency services from Saturday (September 21, 2024) and continuing our Abhaya Clinic initiative.” 

He said the WBJDF hoped that the support they received from common people, healthcare workers and civil society groups towards ensuring justice for the victim would continue as their movement progressed.

Another protesting junior doctor, Debasish Halder, said the doctors would continue their sit-in across medical colleges. “We will also run free-of-cost ‘Abhaya Clinic’ medical camps for the people affected by floods in south Bengal, because that is our duty,” he said.

The torch procession on Friday (September 20, 2024) was jointly called by several professional and civil society groups, including feminist organisations, the Bengal chapter of the Indian Medical Association, fan clubs of football teams, alumni associations of city schools, etc. The torch carried by protesters was relayed across multiple points from Hiland Park to Shyambazar.

Satabdi Das, feminist activist and convener of the ‘Reclaim The Night, Reclaim The Rights’ movement, said the torch rally was an attempt by multiple civil society groups to band together and collectively demand justice for the victim. “As WBJDF’s ceasework protest was bound to end one day, we, the civil society, must keep on maximising pressure to ensure a rapid trial and justice for the RG Kar victim,” she said.

On Thursday night (September 19, 2024), the WBJDF announced that it was withdrawing the 10-day-long sit-in in front of Swasthya Bhawan at Salt Lake as the government had accepted most of their demands. 

However, it highlighted that its first and foremost demand — “a swift, transparent investigation [into the rape and murder case] and punishment for the guilty” — had not witnessed much progress. “It is mainly on this demand that we called a mass rally to the CBI office on Friday,” Dr. Mahato said.

40 suspended

At least 40 medical students and junior doctors were suspended for six months from the College of Medicine and JNM Hospital at Kalyani in West Bengal’s Nadia district on charges of threatening other students and doctors.

The decision follows a college council meeting on Thursday (September 19, 2024) that reviewed the findings of an investigation by the institution’s Anti-Ragging Committee. These students would not be allowed on the hospital premises but can reportedly appear for examinations.

The protesting doctors, apart from seeking justice in the rape-murder case, had also demanded an end to the “culture of threat, blackmail and intimidation” allegedly prevailing in medical colleges and healthcare institutions across West Bengal.

Published - September 20, 2024 09:45 pm IST