‘Reclaim the Night’ March

Yet another brutal rape and murder. Another day of realisation that women are not safe anywhere in the country. Another horrific atrocity to remind people that it has been over a decade since the Nirbhaya tragedy. But still nothing much has changed. The rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 demonstrate that women are not safe even at their workplace. Since then the medical fraternity across the country has been protesting against the nexus of corrupt hospital authority, unsafe working conditions, and failure of the law-enforcing agency, rather its dubious role and the TMC government of Bengal.

The Indian Medical Association observed a 12-hour strike by doctors practising modern medicine on August 17. A day earlier the Resident Doctors ‘Association in Delhi organised a joint protest march. Also, doctors in Delhi’s largest hospital AIIMS staged a protest against the Kolkata incident. Then over 1,000 doctors from private and government hospitals in Goa refrained from providing outpatient department services for 24 hours starting the morning of August 17. Healthcare services at the state-run SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack were disrupted as students staged a cease-work agitation.

Participation of women of all ages throughout the country was unique and encouraging. It signifies the emergence of women power in Indian polity. Tens of thousands of women in Kolkata and across West Bengal walked in a ‘Reclaim the Night’ March at mid-night on August 14, demanding the’ independence to live in freedom and without fear’. The candle-light march took place just before 78th Independence Day on August 15. Outraged medics across India expressed their solidarity with the agitating staff of R G Kar. They are demanding, and quite justifiably, a federal law to protect persons engaged in medical profession. A 2015 survey by IMA found that 75 percent of doctors in India have faced some form of violence at work. Security in hospitals is almost absent.

For one thing what happened in 138-year-old R G Kar hospital was not an isolated incident. Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse at a prominent Mumbai hospital, who was left in a persistent vegetative state after being raped and strangled by a ward attendant in 1973, died in 2015 after 42 years of severe brain damage and paralysis. More recently, in Kerala, Vandana Das, a 23-year-old medical intern, was fatally stabbed with surgical scissors by a drunken patient last year. Amidst the protest movement and rallies by people engaged in the medical profession came the news of the murder of a nurse in Uttarakhand.

Government hospitals are living hells lacking adequate infrastructure and staff. They are invariably overcrowded with unrestricted access. The Centre spends less and less on education and health though these two sectors deserve reasonable investment. But the government is more interested in privatising healthcare service and education by continually inviting corporates to cripple whatever remains of the public health care system. Now Indian healthcare industry managed by big businesses, both domestic and foreign, reached over $370 billion in 2022. And it may reach over $610 billion by 2026. Also, the Modi government has a plan to introduce a credit incentive programme worth Rs 50,000 crore ($6.8 billion) to boost country’s healthcare infrastructure. And government hospitals, otherwise starving of funds for improving service are not going to benefit from government’s grandiose ‘incentive drive’.

Meanwhile, opposition parties, particularly the saffron brigade, in Bengal are trying to gain political mileage by way of organising marches and sit-ins demanding justice and the resignation of the chief minister, without really hitting the target. The Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) observed a 12-hour bandh in Bengal with very little impact on people’s lives. Unless infrastructure improves in government hospitals and budget allocation increases in the health sector R G Kar phenomenon is likely to recur in every corner of the country.

20-08-2024

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Vol 57, No. 10, Sep 1 - 7, 2024