Doctors On 24-Hour Nationwide Strike Protesting Kolkata Rape-Murder; Check Out 5 Demands

New Delhi: Doctors all over the country have started from Saturday morning to protest against the rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor in Kolkata.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had given the call for this nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency health services for 24 hours beginning at 6 am on Saturday. Apart from the ghastly incident at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, the IMA also condemned the subsequent vandalism on the same campus.

All essential services will be maintained and casualties will be manned, the IMA said in a statement. The routine OPDs will not function and elective surgeries will not be conducted.

5 Demands Of Doctors On Nationwide Strike:

*The doctors’ body is pushing for a Central Act that would incorporate the amendments made in 2023 to the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 into the proposed Hospital Protection Bill of 2019. This move, it said, would strengthen the existing legislation in 25 states.

*The security protocols of all hospitals should be no less than (that of) an airport. Declaring the hospitals as safe zones with mandatory security entitlements is the first step. CCTVs, deployment of security personnel, and the protocols can follow, the IMA said in the statement.

*The IMA has demanded a thorough overhaul of the working and living conditions of resident doctors, including the 36-hour duty shift that the victim was in and the lack of safe spaces to take a rest.

*The IMA has also called for a “meticulous and professional” investigation of the Kolkata horror in a specific time frame and rendering of justice besides identifying those involved in the vandalism of the hospital premises and awarding exemplary punishment.

*The doctors’ body has also sought an appropriate and dignified compensation to the bereaved family commensurate with the cruelty inflicted.