Indian doctors demand stricter laws after a colleague was raped and killed in a hospital

NEW DELHI — Hundreds of doctors protested outside India's health ministry on Monday to demand stricter laws to protect health workers from violence and to demand justice for their colleague who was raped and killed in a government hospital.

The protesting doctors, holding placards reading “Justice delayed is justice denied”, were stopped by police as they attempted to provide free outpatient services outside the ministry in New Delhi.

Following the rape and murder of the 31-year-old intern on August 9 in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, the capital of the state of West Bengal, doctors and paramedics across India have held protest rallies and candlelight marches and temporarily refused to treat non-emergency patients.

The doctors say the attack shows the vulnerability of health workers in hospitals and medical facilities across India. They are calling for stricter laws, including imposing a penalty for any attack on on-duty medical workers without the possibility of bail, increased security measures in hospitals and safe rest rooms for the medical workers.

“If a woman is not safe in the workplace or in a hospital, I wonder which woman is safe in this country?” said protesting doctor Daisy Singh.

The government called on doctors to return to their jobs and announced the establishment of a committee to examine their demands.

The rape and murder of the doctor-student at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Calcutta has also focused anger on the chronic problem of violence against women.

A police officer working at the hospital was arrested and charged with the crime. However, the victim's family claims it was a gang rape and that several people were involved. The case was handled by federal investigators.

Thousands of people, mostly women, have taken to the streets of Kolkata demanding justice for the doctor, saying women in India continue to face increasing violence despite strict laws introduced after the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012.

This attack prompted lawmakers to impose harsher punishments for such crimes and set up fast-track courts for rape cases. The government also introduced the death penalty for repeat offenders.

Despite stricter laws, sexual violence against women remains a widespread problem in India. In 2022, police recorded 31,516 rape reports, according to the National Crime Records Bureau – a 20% increase from 2021.