India’s Supreme Court has set up a national task force of doctors to make recommendations on workplace safety following the rape and murder of a 31-year-old woman trainee medic at a state hospital that prompted nationwide protests. The crime again highlighted sexual violence against women in the country.
The Court said on 20 August that a doctors’ panel was being established to frame guidelines for the safety and protection of medical workers across the country. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ordered federal paramilitary forces to provide security at the Kolkata state hospital where the trainee medic was attacked. A police volunteer, who was tasked with helping police personnel and their families with hospital admissions when needed, has been arrested and charged with the crime.
“If women cannot go to a place of work and be safe, then we are denying them the basic conditions of equality,” said Chandrachud, who headed a three-judge bench of the court.
Doctors and healthcare workers in India have held protests and candlelight vigils and have also been refusing to see non-emergency patients in their demand for a swift criminal investigation.
The Supreme Court requested all doctors to return to work. The doctors were joined in their protests by an enraged citizenry, with thousands of women and men marching in Kolkata and cities across the country demanding justice and better safety measures in hospitals.
The Indian Medical Association, the biggest grouping of doctors in the country with 400,000 members, held a 24-hour strike over the weekend and called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce more stringent protections, given that 60% of India’s doctors are women.
Similar attacks in the past spurred politicians to order harsher penalties for such crimes and set up fast-track courts dedicated to rape cases. The government also introduced the death penalty for repeat offenders. However, despite tougher legislation, sexual violence remains pervasive in India. In 2022, the latest year for which records are available, police recorded 31,516 reports of rape – a 20% jump from 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.
Criminal lawyer Rebecca M John, who has represented many rape victims, said some rapists still believe they can get away with their crimes. “One of the factors would be the absence of fear of the law,” she said. Many cases of crimes against women also go unreported because of the stigma surrounding sexual violence and a lack of faith in the police.
SOURCES: AlJazeera, 20 August 2024; AlJazeera, 16 August 2024. Photos from both articles.
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Woman, age 38, dies in backstreet abortion near the end of her pregnancy
Police in Greater Noida have arrested four individuals, including three “quacks”, in connection with the death of a 38-year-old pregnant woman during an illegal abortion procedure. The woman, identified as Mubina, was eight months pregnant at the time of the procedure, police officials said on 17 August. According to police, investigators are probing the possibility of the baby still being alive after the procedure, based on preliminary interrogation of the above four suspects (photo) who claimed the baby was still alive. Four additional suspects involved in the case were still at large, they added.
The Times of India also reported on this story but does not allow the text to be copied. They added more details: that on 15 August the woman’s son reported she had been missing since 6 August. A police officer stated that the woman had been in a relationship with a neighbour, who had taken her to a friend and his wife in Dibai who took her to someone else assumed to be a doctor to terminate the pregnancy. During the procedure, there were “complications” and she died. The question of whether the person who carried out the abortion was a certified doctor or not is unclear and was being checked. Meanwhile the woman’s body was hidden by four of those involved in the bushes near a village road. Her body was recovered and sent for post-mortem, and a case with multiple criminal aspects was registered, including “miscarriage without the woman’s consent”, “death by act done with intent to cause miscarriage”, “act done with intent to prevent a child being born alive or to cause its death”, “disappearance of evidence of an offence”, and “harbouring an offender”. An inquiry will be conducted to find out what happened to the child, who may have been handed to human traffickers.
SOURCES: Hindustan Times, by Ashni Dhaor, Noida, 18 August 2024 + PHOTO by HT ; Times of India, by Advitya Bahl, 18 August 2024. Both reports are full of as yet unproven claims.