Now, if a pregnant unmarried girl, less than 18 years visits me/ any doctor, I am supposed to inform police, failing which I am liable to be punished under POCSO, as this is statutory Rape. I wud be treated as co accused in this heinous crime. That’s the law of land.

Students are responsibility of the authorities. 

A young second year PG student gets brutally raped & murdered within the premises, of a prominent government medical college hospital, in the metro city Kolkata, while she was on duty! 

Reason- She chose to rest in the seminar room as there was no duty room…prowlers roam free in hospitals / especially government hospitals. 

No duty rooms, no safe resting places, no proper changing areas or washrooms, lonely unguarded stretches/ no security guards

Over worked/ underpaid residents compared to their counterparts liable to violence from patients/ attendants/ criminals with whom you are in direct contact with with no defence.

Took me back to my residency days. Even today, a stranger lurks in the dark …in those looming corridors. 

The same story repeats…..the glaring lack of apathy of govt & public who think doctors are doing a glamourised job and are minting money. 

Even the forces posted on borders are given more ammunition and provisions. But here in hospitals you are pitched against not just diseases but forces beyond it….unimaginable uncaring hostility of higher authorities. 

Just as doctors are punishable ( even jailed) under PNDT & POCSO , held responsible for Rape & abortions even when they have not committed the crime/ even on trivial things such as forms not properly filled!

On similar lines, why shudnt all the authorities responsible for entrusting the young doctor’s security be punished !!! 

I received messages from residents/ nurses working in govt hospitals who are scared , from young medical students who are asking - Fist NEET UG/ PG exam/ NTA leak scam to this! Should we stay in this country to get doubted, exploited, beaten, raped, assaulted and murdered? 

Remember all doctors in this country have faced violence at one point of time, in one form or other… physical, verbal, financial, mental & sexual !

ये आग कब बुझेगी? Mourning, in deep shock…..