Indian Doctors Go on Hunger Strike to Protest Killing of Colleague

Asia Pacific|In India, Some Doctors Go on Hunger Strike to Protest Killing of Colleague

More than two dozen doctors in India have been on an indefinite hunger strike for nearly two weeks, one of many nationwide protests demanding a safer work environment set off by the rape and killing of a medical resident in August.

Six of those doctors have been subsisting only on water and been taken to the hospital for care, a doctors’ group formed after the episode said on Thursday. At least two of them were in critical condition.

The brutalized body of the female doctor was found on Aug. 9 in a seminar room at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, a state-run institution in Kolkata, where she was completing a residency. She had many injuries, including a broken neck, according to local news media reports. The name of the 31-year-old victim may not be published under Indian law because of privacy laws relating to sexual assaults.

The episode shocked India, where violence against women remains a scourge, and galvanized thousands of doctors who demanded a thorough investigation to bring the victim justice. They also sought better protection in government hospitals, where resident doctors often work grueling, multiday shifts.

An investigation by the state of West Bengal, of which Kolkata is the capital, has been taken over by a federal investigative agency. But there has been little progress in the inquiry, according to Dr. Sunanda Ghosh, a member of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, an organization formed after the killing in Kolkata.

The protests have taken on an urgency in recent weeks, with doctors around the country pointing to other systemic problems in government-run hospitals, including corruption.

“Our colleague was very vocal about corruption in the workplace,” Dr. Ghosh said. “We also want to know the real motive of her murder.”

Dr. Ghosh said 14 doctors in Kolkata started hunger strikes this month, and others did so in Lucknow and other cities. Doctors in some cities have taken to so-called relay fasting, taking turns in between shifts.

In West Bengal, some resident doctors have sought the removal of top health bureaucrats in the state. They have also asked for police protection in medical colleges and safety from assault by disgruntled relatives of patients.

One focus for many doctors is institutionalized corruption, including in how doctors are selected for highly competitive residency programs. They have also expressed frustration at the number of positions that lie vacant in hospitals, adding to their workload.

Divyansh Singh, a medical resident in the northern city of Lucknow, was recently on a 66-hour hunger strike.

“While they were talking about increasing security measures that must be present in medical colleges, the incident of assault on doctors increased in the past two months,” Dr. Singh said. “So we will continue to demand justice, come what may.”