Expressing solidarity with junior doctors who are on a hunger strike in the eastern state of West Bengal, doctors across India launched a similar protest action on Oct 9 demanding better safety for medical professionals in their workplaces and seeking justice for the rape and murder of a colleague.

Members of the Federation of All India Medical Association, or FAIMA, the largest medical organization in the country, joined the hunger strike, disrupting medical services across the country.

A nationwide protest broke out after a 31-year-old junior doctor was found dead on Aug 9 at the R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH), a prominent state state-run hospital in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. An autopsy later confirmed that the woman, who had a lot of injury marks on her body, had been sexually assaulted.

“We have decided to organize a nationwide hunger strike today (Oct 9) to mark two-month of the tragic incident which took place on Aug 9 and to express solidarity with our colleagues in West Bengal,” Dr Suvrankar Datta, president of FAIMA, told China Daily.

Seven doctors started a fast unto death since Oct 5, and hundreds of other doctors began a sit-in protest at Dharmatala, a protest site in the business and commercial hub of Kolkata, alleging that the local government has failed to keep its promise of strengthening security in state-run hospitals.

On Oct 8, thousands of junior doctors and dozens of senior doctors in all state-run medical colleges in West Bengal held a 12-hour token hunger strike in support of the seven junior doctors and to mount pressure on the local administration demanding better safety for doctors in their workplaces.

At least 48 senior doctors and faculty members of the RGKMCH in Kolkata tendered their resignations on Oct 8 in support of the junior doctors who have been on a hunger strike since Oct 5.

“We will continue the protest … until all our demands are met. It’s now or never,” said Aniket Mahato, a junior doctor from Kolkata who is on indefinite hunger strike.  

Doctors from the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which represents around 7,000 physicians in the state, resumed “cease work” action on Oct 1, disrupting healthcare services in state-run hospitals, but called it off on Oct 4.

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The doctors have been protesting over the past two months following the gruesome rape-murder incident at a Kolkata hospital. Last month, junior doctors returned to limited work in emergency departments of government hospitals after 42 days of “cease work” protest.

The brutality of the doctor’s rape and murder triggered nationwide protests. Thousands of common people have been staging demonstrations almost every day in Kolkata demanding justice for the victim.

Ahead of the beginning of the 10-day-long festival of Durga Puja, Bengal’s biggest festival, junior doctors, along with common people, organized a massive protest rally in Kolkata on Oct 1. The protest also came on the eve of the birth anniversary of father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, on Oct 2.

Protests spread beyond India as well. On Sept 8, thousands of overseas Indians staged protests in more than 130 cities across 25 countries, demanding justice.

“Unless we receive clear action from the government on safety, patient services, and the politics of fear, we will have no choice but to continue our sit-in protest,” the junior doctors forum said in a statement.

“We are scared as perpetrators involved in the crime are still roaming,” said Shreya Shaw, a protesting doctor and a postgraduate medical student at RGKMCH.

Sanjay Roy, a prime suspect who was arrested a day after the young doctor’s murder, has been charged with the rape and murder on Oct 8 by the Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, India’s premier crime investigating agency.

Roy had been a volunteer at the RGKMCH, assisting patients. He raped and then murdered the doctor as she slept, a CBI charge sheet said. It indicated that only Roy was involved in the crime. If convicted, Roy could face the death penalty.

The junior doctors expressed dissatisfaction over the CBI’s “slow" probe into the rape and murder, and alleged that several people were involved in the crime.

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In August, India’s Supreme Court ordered a national task force to study the issue of work safety for healthcare professionals, noting that the brutality of the Aug 9 killing had “shocked the conscience of the nation”.

Global medical fraternity, led by Indian doctors, have united and vowed to bring changes in Indian healthcare infrastructure.

Overseas Indian doctors have written to the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the national task force calling for overall improvement of health care infrastructure across the country in government hospitals.

Many overseas Indian doctors interviewed by this correspondent praised the great quality of training they had received in India, but they expressed dissatisfaction with the shortcomings of the country's healthcare system, which have led many doctors to move overseas.

“We want to overhaul Indian state-run healthcare infrastructure, and it should be free from political interference in its daily functioning,” said Dr Indrani Bhattacharjee, a neonatologist in Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in the United States and a former student of RGKMCH.

“We are dedicated people. We always want to do our best. We have great potential to deliver good quality services, but corruption has crippled healthcare services in government hospitals in India,” said Dr Bidisa Sinha, a consultant at the UK’s National Health Service and a former student of RGKMCH.

It is a silver lining that Indian doctors across the globe have united to bring changes in Indian healthcare infrastructure, said Dr Madhumita Sivaraman, a former chief medical officer for a medical platform of a German multinational firm who is now based in Dubai.  

“We are missing the country. There are many things that should be changed. If the healthcare system is overhauled, then we will consider coming back to India,” said Bhattacharjee.

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Dr Srabani Mukherjee, a British-Indian obstetrician and gynaecologist from Kolkata who is practicing in the United Kingdom, said, “We are deeply traumatized due to the murder of the doctor. The safety of … those who dedicate their lives to caring for others must be a top priority.”

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.