Protests continue against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. Regarding this matter, junior doctors started a fast unto death on Saturday evening. He claimed that the West Bengal government did not fulfill his demands. The doctors were on strike on Friday at Dorina crossing in Dharmatala area in the heart of Kolkata. He had given the state government 24 hours to fulfill his demands as promised.
A junior doctor said, ‘The state government failed to meet our demands within the deadline, so we are starting a fast unto death until our demands are met. To maintain transparency in this, we have installed CCTV cameras on the stage where our friends will fast. We will go for duty as per our promise but we will not eat anything. He told that currently 6 junior doctors are on fast. These include Snigdha Hazra, Tanya Panja and Anushtup Mukhopadhyay of Kolkata Medical College and Hospital, Arnab Mukhopadhyay of SSKM, N.R.S. Pulastha Acharya of Medical College and Hospital and Sayantani Ghosh Hazra of KPC Medical College.
‘If any doctor falls ill during the fast…’
Junior doctors said that if any doctor’s health deteriorates during the fast, the state government will be responsible for it. He said, ‘We have the support of the people and that is why we are not afraid of any kind of hindrance from the administration. We will continue the hunger strike until our demands are met. A large number of common people and some celebrities were present in the evening at the protest site of junior doctors. Junior doctors have started the fast after withdrawing the complete strike.
After all, what are the demands of junior doctors?
The protesting doctors are demanding justice for the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. Their other demands include removal of state health secretary Narayan Swarup Nigam, implementation of centralized referral system in all hospitals and medical colleges. The doctors have also demanded installation of digital bed vacancy monitors in all hospitals, creation of task forces in each hospital and selection of junior doctors to oversee essential facilities like CCTV, on-call rooms and bathrooms. They have also demanded increasing police security in hospitals, recruitment of permanent women police personnel, immediate filling of vacant posts of doctors, nurses and health workers.
