The Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) of AIIMS-Delhi has announced a candlelight march at 6 pm at Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Stadium to commemorate the victim and highlight the ongoing struggle of medical professionals in West Bengal.
Doctors at Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) in New Delhi on Wednesday (October 9) launched a one-day hunger strike to show their solidarity with junior doctors in West Bengal who are protesting the horrific rape and murder of a female medical colleague. The act of defiance, symbolic in nature, aims to draw attention to the continuing violence against healthcare workers.
Doctors at Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital also joined the protest, wearing black ribbons as a sign of grief and solidarity. The Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) of AIIMS-Delhi has announced a candlelight march at 6 pm at Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Stadium to commemorate the victim and highlight the ongoing struggle of medical professionals in West Bengal.
President of the MAMC RDA Aparna Setia said that the doctors would be holding a symbolic hunger strike from 9 am to 4 pm, abstaining from food and drink during their working hours.
"We are doing this to express our support for the junior doctors in West Bengal, who have been on hunger strike for days," Setia told a news organisation. She added that the MAMC has also planned several other activities to raise awareness and amplify the cause of the protesting doctors.
In their statement, the GTB doctors highlighted that their black ribbons were a mark of their grief and a reminder that the medical community would not stand by silently in the face of such brutality. "We wear these ribbons not just to mourn but to protest. This violence against one of us must be condemned, and it must stop," the statement read.
The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) has expressed its discontent with the West Bengal government, criticizing its indifference toward the ongoing plight of junior doctors. "It is disheartening to witness the lack of sensitivity to the suffering of junior doctors. We stand with the West Bengal Junior Doctors Front in their fight for justice, safety, and dignity," FAIMA said in a statement.
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The protests in West Bengal were triggered by the brutal rape and murder of a female medic at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. Junior doctors in Kolkata, supported by senior colleagues, began a hunger strike on October 5 and have vowed to continue their protests until their demands for justice and safety are met.
On September 21, the protestors had briefly suspended their stir after the state government promised to address their concerns, but renewed their agitation on October 1 following another violent attack on doctors at the College of Medicine & Sagore Dutta Hospital by a patient's family.