Doctors across India urge nationwide shutdown after rape, murder of trainee medic

Medical professionals in India are urging a nationwide shutdown of hospital services with political parties gearing up for protests after a young doctor was brutally raped and killed last week.

The 31-year-old, who was working as a trainee doctor at the R G Kar Medical College in Kolkata, had ordered some food with others nearly 20 hours into a 36-hour working day last Friday and then headed off for a short sleep, staff at the medical college told Reuters.

Before becoming victim to the horrific crime, the trainee doctor had "retired to the empty seminar room which was used by on-duty doctors to rest," one co-worker said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The horrifying incident sparked widespread outrage and nationwide demonstrations within the medical community, drawing comparisons to the infamous 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi.

According to Reuters, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the largest organisation representing doctors in the country, announced Thursday a nationwide shutdown of most medical departments for 24 hours, with the exception of essential services, from Saturday morning.

This marks the largest such strike in at least a decade.

"Doctors, especially women are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for the authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses," the IMA said in a statement issued on X late on Thursday night.

Political parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is in opposition in West Bengal, said they will hold protests in the city on Friday.

Bollywood actors, other celebrities and politicians have voiced shock at the crime, calling for stricter punishments for perpetrators of crimes against women.

A police volunteer who worked at the hospital has been arrested and charged with the crime.

Doctors say the circumstances of the rape point to the vulnerability of medics left without proper protection and facilities.

The government brought in sweeping changes to the criminal justice system, including tougher sentences, after the Delhi gang-rape, but campaigners say little has changed despite the tougher laws.

As news of her murder spread and protests erupted across the country earlier this week, IMA’s letter to Health Minister J P Nadda was released, in which the organisation wrote: "Pedestrian working conditions, inhuman workloads and violence in the workplace are the reality."

"The attention of the authorities was drawn time and again to the lack of facilities, but there was no improvement," a junior doctor at the hospital said, asking not to be named.