The 31-year-old medical trainee, who has not been named by the media, was found dead in the early hours of August 9 at Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College. She had been “brutally raped and killed”, the association said, noting that she had been working a 36-hour shift and that “the lack of safe spaces for women” to rest was a serious problem.
The young doctor had gone to sleep on a piece of carpet in a seminar room at the college after her shift, given the lack of any dormitories or resting rooms there, her colleagues told Reuters.
Her body was found with extensive injuries and bleeding, Indian media and Reuters reported, citing a postmortem report.
An autopsy of her body has confirmed sexual assault and one person has been detained in connection with the crime, the Associated Press reported, adding that the family of the victim has alleged it was a case of a gang rape and more people were involved.
The association has accused college authorities and local police of delays and inadequate handling of the case. State officers investigating the crime have been made to hand the case to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation.
Protests have spread across major cities.
Thousands of women have taken to the streets in cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad in “Reclaim the Night” protests this week, decrying inadequate safety laws for women and calling for greater protections and accountability.
Activists argue that the case is emblematic of how India has failed to tackle sexual violence.
“As a society and as a nation, we are failing girls and women,” Sandeep Chachra, executive director of ActionAid Association, said. “The slow pace of justice often emboldens perpetrators. We need better policing and a more effective criminal justice system to deter such heinous crimes.”
The medical association said the Government had not adequately acknowledged “the violence on doctors and hospitals” and said security at hospitals had to be improved.
It also noted that the hospital where the student had worked was “vandalised by a large crowd which destroyed various sections of the hospital” on Thursday, with the medical students who were protesting there also attacked.
“Doctors, especially women, are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for the authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses.”
One doctor, Richa Garg, who took part in Friday’s protests in New Delhi, told the AP that she no longer felt safe at work. “As a woman, it boils my blood. The culprits of this crime should be found immediately … and our workplaces should be made safer.”
Modi addressed the issue on Thursday, saying: “as a society, we have to think about the atrocities being committed against our mothers, daughters and sisters”.
When Modi first ran for office in 2014, women’s safety featured prominently in his outreach to female voters.
Bollywood celebrities have also spoken out, with actress Alia Bhatt writing on Instagram it was “another day of realisation that women are not safe, anywhere”, and “another horrific atrocity” that showed “nothing much has changed” since the brutal 2012 gang rape and killing of a student on a bus in New Delhi, which also sparked mass national protests.
The killing in Kolkata also drew a response from Britain’s Medical Association. “We stand in solidarity with doctors in Kolkata and across India at this upsetting time, and support their call over urgent measures to improve the safety of female doctors in the workplace, including providing secure and private spaces for doctors to use while on shift.”
Gender-based violence remains a serious problem in India
While the protests following the 2012 gang rape in New Delhi saw the country usher in landmark legal reforms, toughening penalties for crimes against women, expanding the definition of rape and setting up fast-track courts to expedite rape trials, activists in India say more still needs to be done.
“The authorities have failed to effectively enforce the law,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “Women and girls in India have the right to live and work without fear for their safety and to do so with dignity.”
Violent crimes against women continue to rise, according to national statistics, and high-profile rape cases continue to surface with alarming regularity, largely as a result of what many say is a culture of downplaying sexual harassment and violence – and of giving impunity to the perpetrators, the Washington Post previously reported.
“The rape and murder of the trainee doctor in Kolkata is a tragic reminder of the pervasive violence against women in India. As a nation and society, we need to reflect on how little we have achieved in making our workplaces, cities, villages, and even homes safe for women,” Chachra said.
India’s National Crime Records Bureau, a government agency, reported 24,923 rape cases in 2012, but that had risen to 31,677 by 2021, according to ActionAid Association, which said it was in part due to “greater awareness, legal reforms, and reduced societal stigma around reporting sexual violence”.
Rashmi Mishra, director of Inspiring Indian Women, a group that champions women’s rights, called the death of the trainee doctor a “horrendous case”, but added she hoped the strikes would create pressure on the authorities to take action.
People in India are now “more awake than ever”.
