Doctors' Wish-List

The first wish is a no-brainer-safety, considering the number of attacks on doctors. But there is more. Such as upskilling. THE WEEK brings you what's on the mind of your doctor

- POOJA BIRAIA

Most women wear fear as second skin-not out of choice but because of circumstances. If women had a nickel each time they faced any assault, they would give the Elon Musks a run for their money. And, each assault leaves behind a memory that scars them for life, a memory laced with fear, pain and despair.

"I will never forget my medical college days. Someone came to my hostel window one night and it was the scariest experience ever. I informed my superiors but the management suppressed the issue. There was no security at the gate outside the women's hostel on the college campus," recounts a doctor who did her postgraduation in Delhi and is now practising community medicine. A few months ago, she revisited her college, and found that little had changed. "I am sure some junior resident may be undergoing the same trauma that I went through," she says. She wanted to remain anonymous as she didn't want her parents to know the ordeal she went through. Fear has many in a chokehold, silencing their pain and experience, no matter how rampant and universal. The gruesome rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August sent shockwaves across the nation, igniting widespread protests and bringing to light serious concerns about safety within medical institutions. But has anything changed?