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Striking Indian doctors defy court over rape protests
"No safety, no duty," they chanted.
FILE PHOTO: A view of the medical emergency ward building inside the premises of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, India, August 20, 2024. / REUTERS/Sahiba Chawdhary/File Photo
Indian doctors in Kolkata said Sept.10 they were defying a Supreme Court order to end a month-long strike sparked by the rape and murder of a colleague, with thousands marching in solidarity with them.
The discovery of the 31-year-old doctor's bloodied body at a state-run hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata on August 9 has stoked nationwide anger at the chronic issue of violence against women.
The murder has triggered protests across India and repeated strikes by medics, demanding safer conditions for women.
While many protests and strikes have since calmed in the rest of India, regular demonstrations continue in the sprawling megacity of Kolkata.
On Sept 9, the Supreme Court in New Delhi gave a Sept.10 evening deadline for medics to resume work.
But Aniket Mahato, spokesman of the West Bengal Junior Doctors Front protest group, said they had refused.
"Junior doctors of the state-run medical college and hospitals across India's West Bengal state will continue their strike, until the justice for the rape and murder of a trainee post-graduate woman doctor is delivered," Mahato said.
Police said around 30,000 people crowded the streets calling for justice on Sept 10, some linking arms in a giant human chain.
"No safety, no duty," they chanted.
One man has been detained for the murder, but West Bengal's state government has faced public criticism over the handling of the investigation.
Mahato said doctors faced "disciplinary action" if they did not resume work, but said the protest was more important to secure safe working conditions for medics.
The gruesome nature of the attack has invoked comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus.
It became a major political issue, and was seen as one factor in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) subsequent success in elections.
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