We, the Association of Theologically Trained Women of India (ATTWI), an ecumenical association of Indian women theologians affiliated to the Senate of Serampore University, West Bengal, with members across India, are deeply disturbed and grieved by the horrific rape and murder of a young woman doctor of RG Kar Hospital, Kolkata, in her place of work where she served patients with dedication.
The 31-year-old woman PG resident doctor who had entered a seminar room to rest at the end of a 36-hour shift at RG Kar Hospital, Kolkata, was gang raped and murdered on 9 August 2024. According to media reports, the autopsy revealed gruesome wounds attesting to the most brutal and heinous acts of violence perpetrated on her body. Parents were initially informed by the hospital that their daughter committed suicide. On arrival at the hospital, they were denied entry to see their daughter’s body, and finally permitted to do so only after three hours of waiting. Women holding a midnight protest, “Reclaim the Night,” on 15 August 2024, protesting this horrific and brutal rape of a young woman doctor in her own workplace, were attacked by a large group of unidentified men.
This rape and murder of a young woman at the cusp of her medical career raises many systemic questions touching on basic dignity and safety of doctors in their workspaces and the way large government hospitals treat young doctors in training.
36 hour shifts with no decent, safe place to rest, is inhuman. It is against the maximum nine-hour workday duration permitted under labour laws. It is undignified to subject doctors who save lives and therefore need to be at their mental and physical best, to such impossible working conditions.
Women trainee doctors subjected to such conditions do not dare to speak up about unsafe working conditions as no one listens to them in a male dominated health care setting. Most women trainee doctors simply wish to get through their training period without upsetting the status quo. ATTWI is very disturbed to note this sorry state of helplessness against systemic silencing and violence that women doctors in the health care system continue to face in India.
ATTWI is further pained to note the reactions to this brutal rape emanating from particular medical institutions in the country in the form of safety advisories, purportedly “to enhance the safety and security of female doctors, students and health care workers,” that list instructions aimed at regulating women’s behavior, places the onus of their safety on women themselves, and severely restricts the way they can perform their jobs as doctors in a hospital setting. ATTWI decries such ill-advised, knee-jerk reactions from some in the medical education systems that tend to further limit women professionals in this country under the guise of “enhancing their safety.”
ATTWI calls on the government of India at the center and in the states to institute stringent laws with trackable implementation measures to ensure the safety, dignity, and health of doctors and health care professionals in hospitals, especially that of women doctors and health professionals. This includes reducing hours of work to 8-hour shifts, and providing safe, clean, and comfortable resting/ changing areas in hospitals, in addition to mechanisms for escalation of complaints without fear of reprisal.
We uplift and affirm the stellar services of the medical community of India in the recent pandemic, and remind this country’s leaders that we must do better in caring for these our healers by providing them the best setting to deliver their healing well, without worrying for their safety and health.
ATTWI extends our solidarity to all the protesting doctors in Kolkata and elsewhere in the country demanding justice for the victim and better working conditions for their entire community. We condemn all efforts by those with vested interests that seek to hinder justice being served, and call on law enforcement to deal strongly with any intimidation of the protesting medical community.
ATTWI stands in solidarity with the grieving family of the woman doctor who was raped and murdered. No parent should have to go through what they are being subjected to! We send them our prayers for strength to deal with this tragedy, and assure them of our support in their fight to bring the perpetrators to justice.
As of the writing of this statement, reports of the rape and murder of a nurse in Uttarakhand whose body was found on 8 Aug 2024 has also come to light. We are deeply grieved by these reports of successive rapes and the many unreported ones in various parts of our country.
May God’s leading guide the justice process and may the crushed dreams of the young woman doctor and other victims of gender-based violence keep us all accountable until justice is served!
In Solidarity,
Jessica Richard
Jessica Richard
President, ATTWI