Docs offer OPD services outside Nirman Bhawan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 19

Doctors provided elective outpatient department (OPD) services on the road outside Nirman Bhawan, the building housing the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, on Monday, calling it a symbolic protest, as they continued their strike for the eighth consecutive day over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata.

Around 300 to 400 people gathered at Nirman Bhawan, holding flags and placards and wearing white aprons stained with red and black colours.

They 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 here.

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.”

‘Want to feel safe at workplace’

We need a safety protection act so we can feel safe at the workplace, as nobody should go through what the Kolkata doctor went through while working. This brutality has left a mark on our hearts and minds. — Doctor Prashasti

“The OPD we are operating here is a symbolic protest. We are both protesting and offering OPD services,” said doctor Ansar from AIIMS, Delhi.

“We want the CBI to arrest 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,” he added.

“We 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 female doctors are scared while working. “We need a safety protection act so we can feel safe at the workplace, as nobody should go through what the Kolkata doctor 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 added.

The doctors’ strike completed a week on Sunday and is now entering its second week, causing difficulties for patients.

These protests follow the Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) 24-hour nationwide strike, which occurred two days earlier.

A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, is scheduled to hear the case on Tuesday.

The incident has also led to political turmoil, with the BJP demanding the resignation of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia criticised Mamata, alleging, “She has become Mamata, the destroyer. By her misdeeds, she destroyed the dignity of a woman, a doctor who was serving society. She is the destroyer of the rule of law and the Constitution.”

The BJP also accused leaders of the INDIA bloc, including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, of being “political vultures” for expressing concern over such cases nationwide, including in BJP-ruled states.