RG Kar case: IMA chief says doctors have always been soft targets

Doctors have always been "soft targets" and the "injustice inflicted on the medical fraternity has no parallel", Indian Medical Association chief Dr R V Asokan has said amid the indefinite hunger strike by young doctors in West Bengal over the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata.

In a statement, posted on X by the IMA, Dr Asokan said on Tuesday that from the word go a doctor in India is a "slave chained by the Bond system".

In the post titled "Meek shall inherit the Earth", Dr Asokan said the rape and murder of the resident doctor at Kolkata's R G Kar Hospital and Medical College has brought out the "rot that has set in the country's medical colleges".

"We are witness to how the sacrifice of the young resident suffocated and raped to a brutal death is haunting the empire. Her death brought out the rot that has set in our medical colleges," he said.

Doctors in West Bengal began their hunger strike on October 5, following nearly 50 days of 'cease work' in two phases, over the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee at state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.

Comparing the doctors' agitation to the fast undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi in Kolkata in the sunset hours of the British Empire, he said the "children of Hippocrates are waging a war by silence and suffering. The State has no clue."

He raised questions on whether the residents who are postgraduates are there to learn clinical medicine or are the employees of the state to run medical colleges.

"Who is responsible for 30 hours duty rosters? Who is accountable for 100 hours a week burden of these children? How many young suicides will open our eyes to the horror that our medical colleges have become," he asked.

He further said that there are 706 medical colleges and 72 more are on the anvil.

He said 150,000 MBBS doctors unemployed at any given time are "loitering in inhumane coaching institutions". Governments cry of shortage yet have no clue how to deploy these fine graduates of medicine, he said.

Dr Asokan further stressed that the crime at RG Kar is only a symptom and "nothing short of a renaissance could fix the mess. Maybe we doctors were soft to be misunderstood as meek".

"One RG Kar is more than enough, It is just a wake-up call. Invest in Health. The violence in Hospitals is directly related to decades of criminal underfunding. Industrialisation of healthcare is not the answer. Redeem Health," he said.

Several junior doctors and medical students across India observed a 12-hour-long hunger strike on Tuesday to express their solidarity with the striking doctors in Kolkata following a nationwide hunger strike call given by the IMA's junior doctors' wing.

The young doctors initially went on "cease work" following the alleged rape and murder of their colleague on August 9. They ended their stir after 42 days on September 21 following assurances from the state government to look into their demands.

However, they began the indefinite fast at the Dorina Crossing in Dharmatala in the heart of Kolkata again claiming that the government did not fulfil their demands.

Some of the demands of the protesters are justice for their colleague, immediate removal of Health Secretary N S Nigam, and formation of task forces to ensure essential provisions for CCTV, on-call rooms and washrooms at their workplace.