Female doctors of Indian origin in the UK showed support for the protests in India demanding justice for a postgraduate trainee who was allegedly raped and murdered in West Bengal on Wednesday.
Indian-origin doctors, many of whom received training in India, expressed their anger and sorrow and called for immediate action in the case of the alleged rape and murder of a young medical trainee in Kolkata.
The body of the postgraduate trainee doctor, who had severe injury marks, was discovered on Friday inside the seminar hall of the chest department at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The initial autopsy report indicated that she had been violently sexually assaulted, sparking widespread protests among medical and non-medical communities in the state and beyond.
A civic volunteer has been arrested in connection with the case, leading to widespread protests as junior doctors and healthcare workers in India express concerns about their safety, with many in West Bengal continuing to strike.
Dr Dipti Jain, a geriatrician working for the National Health Service (NHS) in Brighton, who trained as a medical graduate at a hospital in Kolkata, expressed her shock and mentioned being inundated with messages from the medical community since the incident last week.
“We have worked in those spaces fearlessly just 30 years ago, when the shield of the white clinical apron was like a ‘Lakshman Rekha’ and everyone called us ‘Daktar Didi’. How did the attitudes change so drastically that no space is deemed safe for kids and women now?” said Jain.
She has been coordinating the messages from her Indian-origin colleagues from around the world, including from the US, Canada and UAE, as the Lead for the Pan UK South Asian Doctors and chair of the Medicos Women Charity.
“We stand in solidarity with our fraternity. Justice delayed is justice denied is the collective refrain of us doctors,” she said.
Dr Gauri Batra, a Consultant Paediatric and Perinatal Pathologist based in Manchester, said: “We were once that hard-working young doctor trying to establish ourselves and further ourselves. But not at the cost of what one young doctor had to pay on that grim night … our feelings have no bounds, we weep at what is happening and on the eve of the 78th year of independence of our young and dynamic country.” “How many nights I have spent in the hospital ‘alone’ while being on call or travelled home ‘alone’ in the deepest, darkest hours of the night but never felt unsafe. We need investment into changing the infrastructure to ensure workspace safety,” said Cambridge-based Dr Sonela Basak.
“Our doctor's community in California stands resolutely against all forms of violence, and we are determined to honour the memory of our colleagues by fostering an environment of safety and support for everyone,” added Dr Salma Khan, based in the US.
“We will not rest until justice is served and our community is safe from such senseless violence,” Khan added.
Dr Jain mentioned that the Indian-origin doctors, many of whom have trained in India, expressed an overwhelming outpouring of anger and grief, calling for urgent action in their messages.
Following the Calcutta High Court's directive on Tuesday, the CBI took over the relevant documents from the Tala Police Station in Kolkata after the transfer of the case from the Kolkata Police.
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