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Guwahati, Aug. 17 (PTI): Doctors across Assam on Saturday joined the nationwide protest against the alleged rape and murder of a medic in a Kolkata hospital, demanding exemplary punishment for the culprits, a central law to ensure safety of medical professionals and better security infrastructure at their workplaces and public areas.
Outpatient departments and non-essential services came to a near halt in all hospitals during the day as doctors assembled on the premises, wearing black badges and displaying placards to press for their demands.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had declared a nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency medical services for 24 hours from 6 am on August 17 to protest against the crime.
The withdrawal is across all the sectors wherever modern medicine doctors are providing services, the doctors' body said.
"We want justice for the victim and the family, that is our first demand. We also want to emphasise the need for awareness and education in the society so that such crimes are not repeated," a resident doctor at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) here said.
Another woman doctor said, "We don't have fixed duty hours. We are called from our hostel at 1 am in the night. How can we come and perform our duties when we lack basic security?"
"Justice delayed is justice denied, and we want swift, exemplary punishment," she demanded.
The outpatient department (OPD) at the GMCH was managed by senior doctors to ensure minimum inconvenience to patients who come from all over the state for advanced treatment.
Doctors at Dibrugarh's Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) maintained that the protest was also a manifestation of the lack of security faced by people from all walks of life.
"This nationwide protest symbolises how we feel insecure in every sphere," a protesting doctor said.
"It is a shameful matter that only one culprit has been arrested for the crime. Hospital authorities and those in government could be involved, at least in providing shields to the culprits. We demand all be arrested immediately," he added.
Echoing similar sentiments, protesting doctors at Rupnath Brahma Civil Hospital in Kokrajhar said they are hopeful that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has taken over the probe, will ensure speedy delivery of justice.
They also reiterated the demand for a central act to ensure security for all on-duty medical professionals.
A protesting doctor at Jorhat Medical College and Hospital demanded installation of CCTV cameras to ensure the safety of on-duty medics and other staff.
Doctors in Nagaon, Dhubri, Silchar and Golaghat, among other places, also joined the nationwide protest.
Demonstrations were also held in private hospitals, while nurses and students of nursing institutes also joined the protest at various places.
In Guwahati, students of a private nursing institute staged a street play to create awareness of the need for safety of on-duty medical professionals.
Placards with slogans like 'No safety, no duty', 'No Justice, no peace', 'Stop shielding rapists', 'Doctor life matters', 'Stop rape' and 'We want justice' were raised at different protest sites.
Processions were taken out by doctors and other medical professionals in various parts of the state, raising slogans and demanding justice for the victim and her family, and safety in the workplace.
On August 9, a postgraduate trainee doctor was allegedly raped and murdered while on duty at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
A civic volunteer was arrested in connection with the crime the next day.
Unidentified miscreants entered the premises of the hospital shortly after midnight on Thursday and vandalised portions of the medical facility. The vandalism took place amid midnight protests by women against the rape-murder incident.