India's top court sets up doctors' panel on workplace safety after rape, murder

[August 20, 2024]  By Sakshi Dayal

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India's Supreme Court created a national task force of doctors on Tuesday to recommend steps to ensure safety in their workplaces, days after a trainee doctor was raped and murdered at a hospital, sparking national outrage.

The attack on Aug. 9 in the eastern city of Kolkata has triggered nation-wide protests as people demand justice for the victim and greater safety for women at hospitals, with doctors at several places refusing to see non-emergency patients.

A police volunteer has been arrested for the crime and the federal police have taken over the investigation. The public anger and protests over violence against women is reminiscent of what followed the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.

The Supreme Court, which took up the case on its own, directed the federal police to submit a report on the status of its investigation on Thursday.

It also ordered a federal paramilitary force to be deployed at the hospital where the crime occurred to provide security to female doctors who complained they did not feel safe after the crime and vandalization of the hospital by unidentified men.

The court suggested the task force consider sweeping reforms including security in medical establishments, separate resting rooms for female staff, adequate lighting across the campus, CCTV coverage, and creation of employee panels to conduct quarterly safety audits.

"If women cannot go to a place of work and be safe, then we are denying them the basic conditions of equality," said Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, who headed a three-judge bench of the court.

 A doctor holds a banner during a protest demanding justice following the rape and murder of a trainee medic at a hospital in Kolkata, in New Delhi, India, August 19, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo

The court told the task force to submit an interim report within three weeks and a final report within two months, and asked doctors abstaining from work across the nation to resume duties at the earliest.

"It is our earnest request to doctors all over the country who have stopped work ... we are here to ensure their safety and protection," the court said.

Female activists say the incident has highlighted how women in India continue to suffer from sexual violence despite tougher laws brought in after the 2012 gang-rape and murder in New Delhi.

On Tuesday, thousands of people blocked railway tracks for hours in the western state of Maharashtra, disrupting train services as they protested against the alleged sexual abuse of two, four-year-old girls by a cleaner at a school outside the financial capital of Mumbai.

Police said the man has been arrested and state Chief Minister Eknath Shinde promised that the case will be tried in a fast-track court.

(Reporting by Sakshi Dayal in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi in New Delhi and Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; Writing by Shivam Patel and Sakshi Dayal; Editing by YP Rajesh and Kim Coghill)

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