Indian doctor protests grow after colleague's rape, murder

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00:00Doctors in India have called for a 24-hour nationwide strike said to take effect from

00:05early Saturday.

00:07The largest shutdown of hospital services comes as anger mounts over the rape and killing

00:11of a medical resident in the eastern city of Kolkata last week.

00:15Since that incident was reported, there have been nationwide protests by doctors but also

00:20women across India who are saying enough is enough.

00:24For more on this story, we can bring in Faye D'Souza, journalist based in Mumbai.

00:28Faye, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us here on France 24.

00:31This unfortunately isn't the first rape that's happened in India this year, but the reaction

00:36has been markedly different.

00:37Why is that?

00:38Well, it started off as a protest among resident doctors or junior doctors, doctors who are

00:44completing their residency in government hospitals.

00:47And we've had a series of, you know, violence in the workplace against these doctors.

00:54They've gone on strike in the past to talk about how unsafe they are in the workplace,

00:59being constantly attacked by angry family members, attacked by patients themselves,

01:05in hospitals that are poorly managed, that don't give them enough protection.

01:09The idea that here was a resident doctor who, after completing a 36-hour shift, then decided

01:14to take a nap in a seminar room where she was brutally raped and murdered, then sparked,

01:21I suppose, a reaction from the rest of the country as well.

01:25As we know, India has had a bad track record when it comes to crime against women or women's

01:32safety across the country.

01:35Right across social media, this struck a chord for women all across the country.

01:40It was made worse by the handling of the situation.

01:43The fact that the dean of that institution, or the principal as we call him, first tried

01:49to pass this off as a suicide to family members, tried to tamper with and bury evidence until

01:55the family members, the post-mortem confirmed that not only did she have brutal injuries,

02:01but she had in fact been raped.

02:04There was a protest then that started among doctors.

02:07We understand now in Kolkata that protest was then attacked by a mob that went on to

02:12vandalize the hospital in question.

02:14So really, it's layers of bad handling of this situation from the state government,

02:20from the people who are running the hospital itself, and from the Kolkata police.

02:24So it's sparked outrage across the country, largely led on social media.

02:29Faye, the man accused in this rape and murder of the medical resident in Kolkata has reportedly

02:34been arrested.

02:36State officials want an expedited trial, some even calling for capital punishment.

02:41Is this the way to go ahead and prevent such crimes from happening?

02:45What about educating the public?

02:46Has that not worked?

02:47Well, it's definitely not a way to deter crime or to prevent it from happening in the future,

02:52as we've seen repeatedly these incidents take place.

02:56When there's a brutal crime of this kind, there's outrage on social media, and our political

03:02leaders call for capital punishment.

03:04But the real problem on the ground is with the policing.

03:08It's with security on the ground for women, the manner in which these cases are treated

03:13with forensic evidence, witnesses turning hostile, public prosecutors not taking it

03:18seriously, and the courts not expediting a verdict.

03:22Now, unless all of these problems are really fixed, whether or not there is a death sentence

03:27or capital punishment on the other end of it doesn't matter, because we have a conviction

03:31rate of less than 30 percent on rape cases in India, 28 percent on last count.

03:38So what's really sort of really the problem here is the unlikelihood that this person

03:44would get caught.

03:45And if they do get caught, the unlikelihood that they would receive a verdict at all.

03:49Repeatedly we've seen powerful people get bail, powerful people get furloughed from

03:54jail when they're allowed to come out and not being treated with the seriousness of

04:00the crime in question.

04:02So I believe that that is the real problem on the ground, that our policing and our law

04:06and order and our judiciary needs to relook at how it's handling the problem of crime

04:11against women.

04:12Faye, I remember being on holiday in India in 2012, in December 2012, and I remember

04:18being on the beach in Goa, and everyone around me was talking about this Nirbhaya case, that's

04:24of course the girl who was gang-raped on a moving bus while her friend was tied up.

04:31Everyone was talking about it.

04:32It's been 12 years.

04:33What's happened since then?

04:34It feels like this case has got a lot of, you know, what happened in Calcutta last week

04:39has got a lot of Bollywood, et cetera, chiming in.

04:41It seems that this is reminiscent of that.

04:44Well, the outrage does seem reminiscent.

04:47After what we unfortunately call the Nirbhaya case, Nirbhaya is a Hindi word which means

04:53without fear, which I personally believe should not be used for cases of rape because fear

05:00is the basis, really, that women are feeling at this point.

05:05But it was after that case that India's rape laws were completely overhauled and made far

05:10stricter.

05:11You know, the courts passed laws, passed strictures saying that government medical officers who

05:18actually collect the evidence and form the rape kit have to be sensitized as to how they

05:22treat the survivors.

05:25The police had to be sensitized.

05:26The entire system was rewritten and overhauled.

05:30Like I said, the idea that we are equal to the men in our society and we deserve to be

05:36treated as equals has not changed.

05:38So we've written stronger laws, but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

05:43And I think that's why we find ourselves 12 years down the line still having that same

05:47conversation.

05:48Faye, I did university in America and the first week we had orientation and they told

05:53us no means no.

05:56I haven't done university in India.

05:58Do people not learn this basic stuff?

06:01No, they don't.

06:04To put it very bluntly, no, they don't.

06:05I'll give you an example.

06:07Marital rape is not illegal in our country, which means that if a woman is being regularly

06:13raped by her husband, it's not considered against the law.

06:17She has no protection from the law.

06:20In many parts of the country, rape is still used as a form of punishment in between communities,

06:27in between villages.

06:28It's used, you know, we have something called honor killings where women are killed because

06:33they've stepped out of line in some way and embarrassed their families.

06:37These things still happen in India.

06:39And in our larger cities, there's still a great deal of groping, molestation, sexual

06:46harassment that takes place in a very casual manner in most public places.

06:52And unfortunately, that fundamentally means that no means no is not an idea that is very

06:58well followed in India.

06:59Because I see that the doctors who are protesting, of course, they want safer working conditions,

07:05but it's not just that.

07:07Women should also feel safe going home at 2, 3, 4 in the morning whenever they want

07:11to go home wearing whatever they want to wear.

07:15You know, Zainab, I must point out that in India, we talk about how we are at the cusp

07:20of becoming a sort of global superpower.

07:23And India really is finding her place on the global stage.

07:27But for half this population who cannot go to school or cannot go to college, and if

07:32they do go to college, they can't go to the library late at night because it's unsafe

07:35to come home after that.

07:37They can't travel for work.

07:38They can't safely take a bus or a train or, you know, or any sort of transport, a late

07:44night flight, or just walk down the street because there isn't enough safety.

07:48There's a large portion of this population that is unable to fully recognize its potential

07:54in the workspace or in academics or in science because it's just not safe enough.

07:58And that, I think, is a deep tragedy that our country will have to come to terms with

08:03and try and find solutions for.

08:05Yeah.

08:06Hopefully, things change sooner rather than later.

08:08Faith, thank you so much for taking time and speaking to us here.

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