‘How will we help patients when we’re not safe?’: Delhi women doctors protest against rampant workplace dangers

“Don’t play the female card.”

“You’re just making excuses.”

“You shouldn’t have become a doctor.”

These jibes are directed at a 31-year-old resident doctor and her colleagues in a prominent central government hospital in Delhi, when they raise concerns about women’s safety with their seniors. Their issues include patients “flashing them”, no locks in the room designated for rest, lack of security at night and while dealing with drunk patients.

The resident doctor told Newslaundry that she had learnt to “not speak up too much” about these problems. But now the issues – “at least some of them” – are being addressed after the nationwide outrage over the Kolkata rape and murder case reported on August 9. 

“Every single woman doctor in the country has faced this,” she told Newslaundry, in between shouting slogans demanding justice at a protest in Delhi on Friday. “But there’s nothing we can do except go home and talk to our partners about it, not even our parents as they will get too worried.”

Following the rape and murder of a 32-year-old trainee doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital on August 9, doctors are leading protests, demanding justice and stringent laws to prevent crimes against women and doctors at the workplace.

There have been protests in the national capital almost everyday. On Friday afternoon, thousands of resident doctors across Delhi’s government hospitals such as AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Maulana Azad Medical College, University College of Medical Sciences, and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital gathered in protest at Nirman Bhawan, where the ministry of health and family welfare is located.

The doctors held placards with slogans, such as “hands that heal should not bleed” and “stop violence against doctors”.. Some of them wore their white coats and had their stethoscopes tied around their necks, and others tied black ribbons on their arms as a sign of solidarity. 

As a fraternity, they have two major demands: justice in the Kolkata case and implementation of the Central Protection Act, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2022 but has not been passed yet. The Bill defines violence against healthcare professionals, prohibits such acts, and establishes penalties. 

But as individuals, their concerns go beyond these demands. Newslaundry spoke to several protesting women doctors to understand their safety concerns and why this incident struck home for many. 

‘It can happen to anyone of us’

“We’re used to sleeping anywhere and everyone – on our tables, on the patients’ beds, on counters…there are no proper resting rooms, so we do this,” said a resident doctor from Swami Dayanand Hospital.

One of the reasons this case has shaken so many doctors is because the victim, too, was resting in a seminar hall when the crime took place. Usually, doctors rely on doctor duty rooms, referred to as DDRs or on-call rooms. This is where they can rest, change, and keep their belongings. But when it is not available, they rest wherever they can. 

Even in case the DDR is available, it is not sufficient. 

“We can’t lock the DDR, so we keep a chair against the door to feel safer,” said a doctor from RML. “But someone can easily barge in – what do we do then? Who do we complain to? The woman was raped and murdered at her workplace, while she was resting. It can happen to anyone.”

Doctors are not allowed to lock the rooms at night – some of them do not even have latches – so that in case of an emergency, nurses can wake them up. But it also means that anyone can barge inside the room. The DDRs, when available, are also tiny, with just a bed or two, and unisex. 

“We have calls from different parts of the hospital and are required to move across wards. It isn’t restricted to one particular place. There is no proper security in the passages, no CCTVs, how do we feel safe?” asked a doctor from Safdarjung hospital.

She added that there is a lack of clean washroom facilities too, and that they have to go to other wards just to use the washroom sometimes. And some of the washrooms, like the ones in the DDRs, are unisex. 

“If we are scared, how will we help the patients?” asked a 29-year-old doctor from Safdarjung hospital. “How will we help them when we are not safe in the first place?”

For some of the women protesters, the concerns are beyond violence at hospitals, but women’s safety at the workplace.

“It’s not about the hospital, our protest is for women everywhere who are not safe at their workplaces,” said a 32-year-old doctor from AIIMS. “Women in call centers should be safe and not targeted, women security personnel guarding ATMs at night should be safe and not targeted. Actually, there are barely any women security guards at night. Why is that? Because it is not safe.”

A 26-year-old doctor from Lady Hardinge, voiced the same. “Being a woman anywhere in India is unsafe today, because the incident has shown that even when we perform our professional duties we are not safe. It’s not just for the hospital setting. Women at the workplace anywhere in the country are just not safe.”

‘Long work hours, inappropriate behavior internally too’

The guidelines prescribe that doctors should not work more than 48 hours a week. But for some of them, this is the time duration for one single shift. Since they spend so much time at the hospital, the doctors who spoke to Newslaundry said that on most days, it has also served as a home.

The doctor from AIIMs said that when she was in her junior residency, she would often leave the hospital to go home only at 1 am. She would lie to her parents, telling them that she reached home at 9 pm, so they did not worry, as they usually did when she traveled late at night in autos.

But now, her parents are concerned about her safety at the hospital as well. 

“We have always been as safe in the hospital as in our homes, sometimes even more. But now we are reconsidering it. It seems to be an occupational hazard,” she said. 

Dr Prarthna from University College of Medical Science Hospital said that the incident had forced her to wonder, if she screamed at night for help, would someone even come.

“There are not enough guards, and the ones that are there sit in the corner, barely roaming around. All this has scared me and I haven't been able to sleep at night thinking about this. After the incident, we’ve stopped staying in the hospital to do our academic work and rush home as soon as we’re done. We have never been safe, but this incident has made us more scared.”

Another doctor said that “inappropriate behaviour” is meted out internally too, but it is “immensely hard” for women to speak about it. “It exists in all levels within the system, including our male colleagues and seniors. Often this behaviour is exhibited by the very authorities who take our exams and pass us, so it is extremely difficult for anyone to speak up openly about this as power lies with them.”

“I am the only one in my family who became a doctor. I entered this profession thinking it is a nobel one and I will be helping people. But what about us? Our families that suffer with us? It has been worrying them a lot,” said a 34-year-old doctor from Rajouri Garden District Hospital. 

“All our lives we have studied. But maybe now we have to give time to things like judo and karate. We don’t get time to learn these things but maybe now we will, since no one is keeping us safe,” said a 30-year-old local doctor.

At the protest, the doctors vowed to continue protesting till their demands were heard and justice was served. The Indian Medical Association, meanwhile, has called for a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of all hospital services barring emergency care starting Saturday. 

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