India's protests against the rape and murder of a doctor-in-training, briefly explained

The rape and murder of a 31-year-old junior doctor has sparked protests across India, as the country grapples with inadequate protection for women and increasing reports of gender-based violence.

The demonstrations began in Kolkata, the capital of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, after the woman was raped and murdered in a medical college on August 9. They have now spread to other states and the national capital New Delhi.

The trainees' deaths are just the latest in several high-profile incidents of gender-based violence in India, and they come at a time when sexual violence appears to be on the rise: According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there was a 20 percent increase in reported rapes in 2022 compared to 2021.

The Indian government introduced stricter laws against sexual and gender-based violence, as well as some national policies to combat it, after international protests erupted in 2012 over the case of a young woman who was gang-raped and killed on a bus. But as the current tragedy and other high-profile cases show, these laws have not ended India's systemic problems with gender-based violence, and many of the protesters say they have had enough.

Thousands (some estimates say hundreds of thousands) of doctors have walked out of their posts as part of the protests. On Saturday, doctors across the country, led mostly by women, went on a 24-hour strike. In recent days, some doctors, including a group of doctors in New Delhi, have tried to organize limited free treatment as part of their demonstrations, and most have refused to treat non-emergency patients. Government officials have asked the protesting doctors to return to work as usual; they have refused until their demands are met.

Politicians are demanding justice. In a speech on August 15 – India's Independence Day – Prime Minister Narendra Modi – without mentioning the rape and death in Kolkata – said that everyone in the country “needs to think seriously about the kind of atrocities being committed against our mothers, sisters and daughters” and that “crimes against women should be investigated more urgently”.

Investigations into the rape and death are currently ongoing, and there are renewed calls for India to strengthen legal protections for medical personnel in general and for women in particular.

There are still many unknowns about the woman at the centre of the protests. Her name has not been made public in accordance with Indian law. What we do know is that she worked at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. She reportedly fell asleep in a seminar room at the hospital after a long shift as a junior doctor. The next morning, August 9, her colleagues found her body.

An autopsy report showed signs of sexual violence. A police volunteer, Sanjay Roy, was arrested and charged with murder. The woman's parents insist more people were involved. Federal officials have taken over the investigation into the case.

As the investigation continues, doctors are protesting for safer conditions in their hospitals, including a law that would eliminate bail for people accused of assaulting doctors. They are also demanding a speedy resolution of the case and have spurred an investigation into larger systemic problems of gender-based violence in India, including the stigma of sexual assault in the country and distrust of local police, according to the Associated Press.

Religious and ethnic minorities have been victims of gender-based and sexual violence at the hands of the state. Arguably one of the most shocking cases in history is the 1991 mass rape by the Indian military in Kashmir. In Jammu, a part of Kashmir that has been the scene of state repression and popular uprisings, an 8-year-old girl was abducted in 2017 by a former government official and police co-conspirators, held in a Hindu temple, tortured, raped and murdered. Police said the crime was part of an attempt to drive the nomadic Muslim community to which the girl belonged from the area.

Modi's government overturned the convictions of 11 men convicted of raping a Muslim woman during the 2002 Gujarat riots, but they were eventually sent back to prison. Modi was chief minister of Gujarat at the time, and around 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the riots. And cases like the woman's are piling up at the community level too. In the wake of her case, three doctors were accused of raping a nurse in northern India.

“There is so much gender-based violence” in India, Ather Zia, an anthropology professor at Northern Colorado University, told Vox. She added that this is by no means unique to India. “This is true all over the world.”

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