06/12/2024
Sarah Bates writing in the left wing weekly newspaper Socialist Worker says that nursing and medical staff in India are taking action after the rape and murder of a young doctor on hospital property. Hundreds of thousands of people, many of them health workers, are demanding justice following the murder of the woman. Women in Kolkata and other parts of Bengal planned to take to the streets at 11.55pm on Wednesday in a “Night is ours” protest. In Delhi, doctors held up signs saying, “Save our doctors, save our future”. And in Hyderabad, doctors held a candlelit vigil. The doctor’s family were originally told by the authorities that their daughter had died by suicide—and they had to wait three hours before viewing her body. “We want justice for our daughter. She did not deserve this. We want the truth to come out,” her father said. Appalling working conditions combine with astronomically high levels of sexual violence. The doctors shutting down their workplaces and taking to the streets are acting together in the belief that they can win change. It’s a hugely welcome collective response to the brutality that women are forced to endure. It’s particularly powerful that this doctor’s colleagues—across the whole healthcare sector—are organising together, as workers, not just as concerned citizens.
