NEW DELHI: Junior doctors in West Bengal, India, resumed their full strike on Tuesday, voicing frustration with the judiciary’s handling of justice following the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in August.
The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, representing around 7,000 doctors, had partially resumed services last month due to the flood crisis in parts of the state.
The murder of the 31-year-old female doctor in Kolkata, the state capital, sparked widespread protests among doctors demanding better workplace safety for women and justice for their colleague. This led India’s Supreme Court to form a hospital safety task force.
In a hearing on Monday, the court urged the state government to implement safety measures for doctors by October 15 and directed the information ministry to ensure the victim’s identity was kept confidential, as per legal requirements.
Despite this, the doctors expressed disappointment with the court’s decisions and announced a return to a full strike.
“We are compelled to fully cease work unless we see clear government action on safety, patient services, and the politics of fear,” the group stated on Tuesday.
Their demands include increased police protection in hospitals and investigations into alleged corruption in medical colleges.
West Bengal, governed by the Trinamool Congress party, has been slow to establish fast-track tribunals for handling sex crimes, according to a Reuters report. The state has only six operational tribunals, far short of the goal of 123 by March 2021.
