Indian medics continue protests over doctor’s rape and murder

• Indian junior doctors continue their nationwide protests following the rape and murder of a fellow medic.
• Doctors refuse to see non-emergency patients and demand safer workplaces and swift criminal action.
• The incident underscores the ongoing issue of sexual violence against women in India.

Thousands of Indian junior doctors refused to end their protests on Monday, continuing to disrupt hospital services nearly a week after they launched a nationwide action. They demand safer workplaces and swift criminal action following the rape and murder of a fellow medic.

Doctors across the country have protested and refused to see non-emergency patients since the Aug. 9 killing of a 31-year-old medic. Police report that the trainee was raped and murdered at a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata.

Police have arrested a volunteer and charged him with the crime. Women activists argue that the incident underscores the ongoing issue of sexual violence against women in India, despite stricter laws implemented after the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi.

The government has urged doctors to return to work while it forms a committee to recommend measures for better protection of healthcare professionals.

“Our indefinite cease-work and sit-in will continue till our demands are met,” said Dr. Aniket Mahata, a spokesperson for protesting junior doctors at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, where the incident happened.

In solidarity with the doctors, thousands of supporters from West Bengal state’s two biggest soccer clubs marched through the streets of Kolkata on Sunday evening, chanting “We want justice.” Groups representing junior doctors in neighboring Odisha, the capital New Delhi, and the western state of Gujarat have also pledged to continue their protests.

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