Striking Indian doctors want demands met before returning to work

Doctors shout slogans during a protest demanding justice following the rape and murder of a trainee medic at a hospital in Kolkata, in New Delhi, India, on August 19, 2024. (REUTERS/File)
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Updated 10 September 2024
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Striking Indian doctors want demands met before returning to work

  • Hundreds of doctors are demanding better security at hospitals, justice for young doctor raped and killed last month
  • Supreme Court on Monday said doctors had until Tuesday to return to work or they could face “adverse action”

KOLKATA: Junior doctors in India’s state of West Bengal vowed on Tuesday to keep up a protest strike over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor unless their demands were met, flouting a Supreme Court deadline.

Hundreds of doctors are demanding better security at hospitals and justice for the woman, found dead on Aug. 9 in a classroom at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, the state’s capital.

The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front said it would “consider” the court’s order only if its demands were tackled by the deadline.

“Otherwise, we will understand that the government does not wish to end the deadlock,” the group, which represents about 7,000 physicians in the state, said in a statement on Monday.

“In that case, we will hold the government responsible for the situation arising across the state.”

The demands include better safety measures, from adequate security staff and closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras to proper patient services in government hospitals, and the removal of the city’s police chief.

“We don’t see a single CCTV camera being installed after the incident,” said Dr. Shubhendu Malik, a spokesperson for the junior doctors at the R.G. Kar hospital. “There is no rest room, no separate toilets for men and women.”

On Monday, the Supreme Court, which took up the matter in the wake of nationwide outrage over the incident, said the doctors had until the following day to return to work, or they could face “adverse action.”

Protests over the incident spread overseas on the weekend, as thousands of Indians staged demonstrations in 25 countries, including the United States and Japan, to demand justice for the woman.

Rights activists say the attack provides further evidence of the sexual violence Indian women face despite tougher laws introduced after a horrific incident of gang rape and murder in the capital, New Delhi, in 2012.

A police volunteer has been arrested for the crime and the former principal of the college has been arrested over accusations of graft.


UN rights chief appeals for $400 million as crises mount and funding shrinks

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UN rights chief appeals for $400 million as crises mount and funding shrinks

  • The UN office is appealing for $100 million less than last year, after a significant scale back of its work in some areas
  • Volker Turk’s office undertook less than half the number of ⁠human rights monitoring missions compared to 2024
GENEVA: UN human rights chief Volker Turk appealed for $400 million on Thursday to address mounting human rights needs in countries such as Sudan and Myanmar, after donor funding cuts drastically reduced the work of his office and left it in “survival mode.”
The UN office is appealing for $100 million less than last year, after a significant scale back of its work in some areas due to a fall in contributions from countries including the US and Europe.
“We are currently ‌in survival ‌mode, delivering under strain,” Turk told ‌delegates ⁠in a ‌speech in Geneva, urging countries to step up support.
In the last year, Turk’s office raised alarm about human rights violations in Gaza, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ukraine, and Myanmar, among others.
However, due to slashes in funding, Turk’s office undertook less than half the number of ⁠human rights monitoring missions compared to 2024, and reduced its presence in ‌17 countries, he said. Last year it ‍received $90 million less in ‍funding than it needed, which resulted in 300 job ‍cuts, directly impacting the office’s work, Turk said in December.
“We cannot afford a human rights system in crisis,” he stated.
Turk listed examples of the impacts of cuts, noting the Myanmar program was cut by more than 60 percent in the last year, limiting its ability to gather evidence.
A ⁠UN probe into possible war crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is also struggling to become fully operational due to limited funding, while work to prevent gender-based violence and protect the rights of LGBTIQ+ people globally has been cut up to 75 percent, the office said.
“This means more hate speech and attacks, and fewer laws to stop them,” Turk stated.
The UN human rights office is responsible for investigating rights violations. Its work contributes to ‌UN Security Council deliberations and is widely used by international courts, according to the office.