Stir against Bengal horror grips India

GOVERNMENT hospitals, including all the AIIMS, saw OPD (outpatient department) and other elective services shut down as junior and resident doctors refused to return to work for the second consecutive day to protest the brutal rape and murder of a postgraduate woman trainee doctor on duty in a government hospital in West Bengal.

- KAVITA BAJELI-DATT

The indefinite strike call given by various resident doctors' associations, demanding action in the brutal incident, a safe working environment for doctors, and a separate Central law prohibiting violence against healthcare workers, led to innumerable difficulties for patients, especially poor people, who throng these government hospitals from far and wide.

As more and more doctors, including MBBS students, across the country joined the protests and shut work, a delegation of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which has approximately 3.5 lakh member doctors in 1,700 active local branches in 29 states and Union Territories in India, met Union Health Minister JP Nadda.

In a late-night development, after meeting with Nadda, the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA), which was the first to call for an indefinite strike, announced that they have called off their strike in public interest.