LONDON: Indian-origin men and women gathered in multiple cities across Britain on Thursday night to demand justice for the trainee female doctor raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. They called for safer working conditions for women – not just in Indian hospitals but all workplaces in India – and for the mindset towards women in India to change.
Many at the London protest-vigil, held in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square, were Indian-origin doctors now working in the NHS who had trained in hospitals in Kolkata.They said safety for women was far better in Kolkata decades ago and had gone downhill and that security and facilities for female doctors in hospitals across India was terrible. They also wanted to see swifter justice handed to the culprits.
One doctor spoke of how an on-call room at an AIIMS hospital in India that she visited earlier this year had a rickety bed with bed lice, rats, no lockable bathroom, and no running water.
“There are no restrooms in Indian hospitals and security is not effective. The police disappear when needed. The CCTV needs to be monitored. We need proper rest rooms for doctors,” said Dr Tina Gupta, who studied at Calcutta National Medical College. “We never felt unsafe 20 years ago. The attitude towards women in India has changed. Men were more respectful to women before.”
Rudra Baidyaray, an NHS surgeon, said: “When we were working in Kolkata, these things didn’t happen in the hospitals then.”
His daughter Ritisha (17) said: “Nothing has improved, it has got worse.”
India-born Sneh Sunny blamed it on the “mentality of men”. She said they “need to stop treating women as objects. I feel vulnerable in the evenings in India. I have a son and I taught him women are equal. It is our duty to teach them.”
Anurag Rag (36) from UP said: “My family, especially my mother, taught me to respect women. I have seen women treated badly in my state and it has made me want to protect women more.”
Many at the London protest-vigil, held in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square, were Indian-origin doctors now working in the NHS who had trained in hospitals in Kolkata.They said safety for women was far better in Kolkata decades ago and had gone downhill and that security and facilities for female doctors in hospitals across India was terrible. They also wanted to see swifter justice handed to the culprits.
One doctor spoke of how an on-call room at an AIIMS hospital in India that she visited earlier this year had a rickety bed with bed lice, rats, no lockable bathroom, and no running water.
“There are no restrooms in Indian hospitals and security is not effective. The police disappear when needed. The CCTV needs to be monitored. We need proper rest rooms for doctors,” said Dr Tina Gupta, who studied at Calcutta National Medical College. “We never felt unsafe 20 years ago. The attitude towards women in India has changed. Men were more respectful to women before.”
Rudra Baidyaray, an NHS surgeon, said: “When we were working in Kolkata, these things didn’t happen in the hospitals then.”
His daughter Ritisha (17) said: “Nothing has improved, it has got worse.”
India-born Sneh Sunny blamed it on the “mentality of men”. She said they “need to stop treating women as objects. I feel vulnerable in the evenings in India. I have a son and I taught him women are equal. It is our duty to teach them.”
Anurag Rag (36) from UP said: “My family, especially my mother, taught me to respect women. I have seen women treated badly in my state and it has made me want to protect women more.”