Ranjan Kumar Padmapati
(The writer can be reached at rkpadmapati@yahoo.co.in)
The murder of a postgraduate lady doctor on August 9th in the early morning at 2 a.m. inside the conference hall has rocked and shocked the entire nation. The incident finding its mention in the Independence Day speech of our prime minister reflects the gravity of the situation. It has exposed the inadequacy of safety measures for female health-care workers at work places in India. The more surprising fact is that the murder was committed at a state-run medical college in a city like Kolkota. It is more astonishing that, according to a report by the National Crime Research Bureau 2022, 80 rapes take place per day in India. A pertinent point to note is that the whole health-care system is being managed mostly by women; 60% of doctors, 68% of dentists, 75% of physiotherapists, and 85% of nursing professionals are women in India.
It is not the only case; similar cases of sexual harassment and rapes of women occurred in the past at different medical college hospitals and places in India. In Assam, too, a lady doctor was murdered in the recent past. The modus operandi of the crime is similar in nature and quite fresh in the minds of the public. At the Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh Sarita Toshniwal, a first-year postgraduate student, was found murdered in an ICU room in 2014, in the wee hours of the morning, at least after 5–20 am, as the phone call data revealed, while she went there to take rest after attending long, strenuous duties. But that incident did not gain much publicity to cross the geographical boundary of the state. The murderer, Kiru Mech, a hospital ward boy, was awarded only life imprisonment after waiting nine years for justice. The quantum of punishment seems inadequate; capital punishment would have been a befitting punishment to instill a sense of fear in the minds of perpetrators to work as a deterrent. In 1973, Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse, was sexually assaulted by a hospital Safai worker at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. Priyanka Reddy, a veterinary doctor, was raped and murdered in Hyderabad. 2019 and the infamous Nirbhoya case are a few such examples. Crime against women has become endemic to India.
But the present case in point has crossed the boundary limits; the entire medical fraternity of India has joined a nationwide strike backed by the IMA with the support of one million doctors from all medical colleges and health-care units to raise their voice against such gruesome crimes. In both of the above cases of murder, a few circumstances are in common: the victims were lone occupants, it was after long, strenuous working hours, and it took place in the wee hours of the morning. It is clear that there is no designated rest room for lady doctors or health workers to take rest in the medical colleges of India, though they are compelled to work more than 36 hours of continuous strenuous shift duty at a stretch. Not only rest rooms, but the availability of separate washrooms is an equally important issue. There are common lapses on the part of medical college authorities at all such institutions. A report released by the National Medical Commission reveals that 84% of postgraduate students experience moderate to very high stress levels, and 64% state that workloads adversely affect their mental health. The IMA has taken the matter into the right perspective to press for their demands before the central government. Recently, a group of 70 Padma Awardee doctors wrote to the prime minister for personal intervention and to address the grievances of the agitating doctors. They requested that the that the PM safeguard the dignity and safety of medical professionals with the utmost priority. The Padma awardees expressed their full solidarity with the agitating medical professionals.
This case of the rape and murder of Dr. Moumita Debnath at the R. G. Kar Medical College is one of the rarest of the rare. The inquest report identified 10 injuries on the body: bleeding from the private part, scratches on the eyes, neck, nails, right hand, left leg, stomach, etc. The recovery of 151 grammes of liquid sample collected from her private part confirms it to be a case of gang rape. Initially, police tried to cover up the case as a suicide case; later on, it took a different turn. Members of the family dragged the case to the door of the Kolkota High Court. Now the case has been investigated by the CBI, and Sanjoy Roy, a boxer, is the prime accused, a civic police volunteer engaged in the Police Welfare Association. According to some police officers, Shri Roy is a criminal of the highest order and a known womanizer. The nexus of such a high-order criminal with police to manage the affairs of a medical college hospital working on a 7x24-hour basis, where the number of females is significantly high, raises many questions. One more lapse on the part of the principal is that he has not lodged an FIR with the police after the discovery of the dead body.
A preliminary investigation by the members of the National Commission for Women found serious lapses; the most alarming was the tempering of evidence, and the seminar room was undergoing renovation activities, destroying evidence where the lady doctor was found murdered. In fact, the crime scene should have been sealed for a forensic investigation. Inadequate security measures for inters, doctors, and nurses on duty at night were reported. There were not enough security personnel at the time of the incident. The college premises were poorly illuminated. Though the report pertains to only R. G. Kar Medical College, deficiencies are common in other medical colleges too. As such, it necessitates self- or outsourced experts’ assessment and audit of the existing safety measures and pointing out the deficiencies. Certain minimum safety measures, like well-lit wards, roads, work places, and corridors with sufficient CCTV camera coverage, will definitely reduce the risk factors to a low level. Installation of a panic button, like a siren to alert, could be an alternate option. In the backdrop of the murder, the government of WB has introduced a mobile app that will connect to the police control room directly in case of an emergency. The central government has increased security personnel by 25% in all centrally run health care institutions; similarly, state governments need to upgrade their strength. The “install and forget” attitude will not help unless the working health of the instruments is not properly monitored and repaired to provide clues when needed. The suo motu cognisance of the case by the Supreme Court is the right step forward, and people can expect justice.