Protests have erupted across India over the past week after a 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and killed while at work.
The doctor, who worked at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, a government facility in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, fell asleep in a seminar room following a 36-hour shift, the Associated Press reported. On Friday, she was found dead with several injuries to her eyes, mouth, legs and several other body parts.
A police volunteer was arrested following the doctor’s death. Federal investigators are probing what happened, according to the AP.
On Wednesday, outrage escalated and doctors around the country took to the streets to protest for justice for both the doctor and for better working conditions in the hospitals, which many say are neglected and are often overcrowded.
Signs saying “We want justice” and “Reclaim the night” flooded the streets of Indian cities in the aftermath of the tragedy. Some of the protests haven’t remained peaceful, with reports emerging of cars being attacked, hospital wards being ransacked and police officers sustaining injuries. The AP also reported that police did use tear gas on the demonstrators in Kolkata to break up one of the rampages.
Many government hospitals around the country have shown their solidarity by suspending services — except for emergency ones — to protest. Violence against doctors in India isn’t uncommon. According to a study done by the Indian Medical Association in 2021, over 75% of doctors in the country have faced some type of violence — and nearly 70% of that has come from a patient’s attendants or escorts.
In 2022, crimes against women in India rose nearly 4% from the previous year, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, and grew by nearly 13% from 2018 to 2022. In West Bengal, where Kolkata is located, the crime rate against women is 71.8 per 100,000 — which is still above the national average of 66.4.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said he “can feel this outrage.”
“As a society, we have to think about the atrocities being committed against our mothers, daughters and sisters. There is outrage against this in the country,” he said in an address to the nation. “Monstrous behavior against women should be severely and quickly punished.”
