Continuing their strike for the eighth consecutive day over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata, around 400 doctors and other medics are offering elective outpatient services on the road outside Nirman Bhawan on Monday in a symbolic protest.           

Doctors sat with sheets of paper showing their names and specialisations - ortho OPD, neurology OPD, psychiatry OPD, PMR - on the road in front of the office of the Ministry of Health at Nirman Bhawan. A doctor sitting on the road to check patients said, “At the hospital, there is no safety or protection. At least here, we have police around us, so we can treat patients here. We have no option but to fight for ourselves, as nobody is doing anything besides offering us sympathy and empty assurances.”

“The OPD we are operating here is a symbolic protest. We are both protesting and offering OPD services,” Doctor Ansar said. Another protesting doctor added, “We want the CBI to catch the culprits (of the Kolkata rape-murder incident) and for the court to impose the maximum punishment. We urge the government to ensure that no such incidents occur in the future.”

Around 300 to 400 people gathered at Nirman Bhawan, holding flags and placards and wearing white aprons stained with red and black colours. “We doctors have been protesting here for eight days, and nothing has changed so far. We will not stop; the strike will continue until the Central Protection Act (CPA) is implemented,” said one of the protesting doctors.

Doctor Prashasti said that female doctors are scared while working. “We need a safety protection act so we can feel safe at the workplace, as nobody should have to feel what she went through while working. This brutality has left a mark on our hearts and minds. We need something to help us truly work again, or we cannot continue,” she asserted

The doctors’ strike in the national capital over the rape and murder of a medic at a state-run hospital in Kolkata completed a week on Sunday and is now entering its second week, causing difficulties for patients. Late Sunday, resident doctors announced that their strike will continue and decided to provide elective OPD services in around 36 specialties, including medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, ophthalmology and orthopedics, to patients outside Nirman Bhawan on Monday. However, emergency services will continue as before at the hospitals.