JUNIOR doctors in West Bengal have resumed their full strike, complaining that the country’s judiciary has not made adequate efforts to restore justice after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in August.
Doctors from the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which represents about 7,000 physicians in the state, had earlier reinstated partial services last month, citing the floods in parts of the state.
The rape and murder of the 31-year-old female doctor in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal, set off a wave of protests by doctors demanding greater workplace safety for women and justice for their slain colleague, prompting India’s Supreme Court to create a hospital safety task force.
The top court, in its latest hearing on Monday, urged the state government to put in place all measures by Oct 15 to meet the doctors’ demands.
The doctors, however, said they were disappointed with the decision and were “compelled to return to a full ceasework”.
“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 full strike,” the group said yesterday.
The doctors’ demands include increased police protection in hospitals and investigation of what they say is corruption in several medical colleges.
West Bengal, ruled by the regional Trinamool Congress party, has been slow to create new tribunals to try sex crimes speedily.
Only six tribunals are operational in the state, a far cry from the target of installing 123 fast-track tribunals by March 2021. — Reuters
