Junior doctors in West Bengal, currently on strike after the rape and murder of a colleague at a Kolkata hospital, have requested a second meeting with the state government, citing unresolved issues following their discussions with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday.
While the talks yielded some concessions, including the removal of Kolkata’s police chief and two senior health officials, the doctors expressed dissatisfaction, saying that their full list of demands had not been addressed.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, the Junior Doctors Front said, “There have been repeated attempts to politicize our cause, false accusations of seeking positions of power rather than justice, and efforts to create divisions among us through emails, audio clips, and to malign our movement. Yesterday, in a long discussion with the Honorable Chief Minister, our five-point demands were discussed, and some of them were partially fulfilled”.
The association also criticized the proposed “Aparajita Act” as discriminatory, arguing that it unfairly restricts women doctors by barring them from night shifts and limiting day shifts to 12 hours.
“The deep-rooted misogyny and medieval mindset hidden behind the state’s “Aparajita Act” have been laid bare before the Supreme Court. It was made clear that imposing restrictions like not allowing night duties and limiting day shifts to less than twelve hours creates a divide between men and women, and such interference with their freedom cannot provide genuine security for women,”
In response to the ongoing protests, the West Bengal government has removed several senior officials from their posts, including Dr. Kaustav Nayak and Dr. Debashis Halder, formerly the Director of Medical Education (DME) and Director of Health Services (DHS), respectively. Dr. Suparna Dutta, Director of the Institute of Health and Family Welfare, and Dr. Swapan Soren, Joint DHS, were also removed from their positions.
Dr. Nayak has since been appointed Director at the Institute of Health and Family Welfare, while Dr. Halder will serve as Officer on Special Duty for Public Health.
The body of the 31-year-old doctor was discovered at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, sparking the strike by thousands of junior doctors across the state.
(Inputs from ANI)
