Junior doctors continue indefinite hunger strike demanding justice, workplace safety

KOLKATA — Agitating junior doctors demanding justice for the deceased woman medic of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and workplace safety continued their hunger strike until death on Sunday in the central part of the city’s Dharmatala area.

Several senior doctors, who have been at the protest site since Saturday night, are also planning to join their junior counterparts in the hunger strike.

“The support of these people gives us the courage, the enthusiasm to continue our protest against the gruesome murder of our sister. We are happy to see that people have not forgotten that justice is yet not given and attacks on doctors are still on and the state government has no serious note of our demands,” Debasish Halder, one of the agitating doctors, told PTI.

The junior medics started their hunger strike untill death on Saturday night after the state government missed the 24-hour deadline of fulfilling their demands by 8.30 pm on Saturday.

They had on Friday begun a sit-in demonstration at the Dorina crossing in Dharmtatala area following an alleged assault by Kolkata Police personnel.

To maintain transparency, the junior medics have installed CCTV cameras at the dais where their colleagues are holding the strike.

The six doctors who were sitting on the fast were identified as Snigdha Hazra, Tanaya Panja and Anustup Mukhopadhyay of Kolkata Medical College and Hospital, SSKM Hospital’s Arnab Mukhopadhyay, Pulastha Acharya of NRS Medical College and Hospital, and Sayantani Ghosh Hazra of KPC Medical College.

The state would be held responsible if any doctor fell ill during the fast, the junior doctor said.

A large number of common people gathered at the protest site and a few celebrities also joined them at the protest site since Saturday night.

On Friday, the junior doctors had called off their ‘total cease work’, which had crippled healthcare services at state-run medical colleges and hospitals.

The protesting doctors emphasised that securing justice for the deceased woman medic remains their foremost priority.

Among the other nine demands, they called for the immediate removal of Health Secretary NS Nigam, as well as accountability for the alleged administrative incompetence and corruption in the Health department.

Other demands include the establishment of a centralised referral system for all hospitals and medical colleges in the state, implementation of a bed vacancy monitoring system, and formation of task forces to ensure essential provisions for CCTV, on-call rooms, and washrooms at their workplaces.

They are also demanding increased police protection in hospitals, recruitment of permanent women police personnel, and swift filling of vacant positions for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers.

The junior doctors went on “cease work” following the rape-murder of a fellow medic at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. They ended their stir after 42 days on September 21 following assurances from the state government to look into their demands.