TW: Rape
On 9th August 2024, horrific news broke from Kolkata’s premiere RG Kar Medical College where a junior doctor was raped and murdered in the seminar room of the institution where she was resting after a 36 hour long shift. The naked body of the trainee doctor was discovered the next morning with visible marks of sexual assault. Initially, there were attempts to pass off the case as a death by suicide but a detailed autopsy later, it was clear that it was a rape and murder case.
Initially, there were attempts to pass off the case as a death by suicide but a detailed autopsy later, it was clear that it was a rape and murder case.
Only one suspected culprit, a civic volunteer, has been arrested till now although 150 gm of semen has been found in the victim’s body, making it a clear case of gang rape.
The PGT doctors of the Medical College had ceased work in all departments other than the emergency ward, demanding immediate arrest of the culprits.
Victim blaming and political negligence
The principal of RG Kar Medical college, Dr. Sandip Ghosh and the authorities initially tried to cover up the incident, brushing it off as a case of suicide. Dr. Ghosh has also blamed the victim claiming that it was irresponsible of her to go to the seminar hall alone at night. After facing backlash for his comments Dr. Ghosh resigned from his post as Principal.
‘The sole demand of the people of the state was my resignation. So I am resigning willingly and not under any pressure… I am being defamed on social media. Some people are spreading false accusations against me. Students are being provoked to seek my removal. The deceased doctor was like my child, and I want the guilty to be punished. As a parent, I am resigning,‘ he said.
However, he was immediately appointed as Principal of Calcutta National Medical College after his resignation from RG Kar by the state government which is led by the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee and the state machinery have also been heavily criticised for mishandling the case and for the lack of transparency in the process of finding the criminals. Banerjee’s cabinet, composed of several women TMC leaders have mostly maintained a deafening silence on the issue till now, with Mamata Banerjee speaking up about leading a rally only recently. It is suspected that the actual perpetrators of the horrific gang rape are being shielded since only one man has been arrested till now.
It is suspected that the actual perpetrators of the horrific gang rape are being shielded since only one man has been arrested till now.
The lack of suitable political action and the dearth of solidarity and empathy from Mamata Banerjee for cases of gender based violence is not new- Banerjee has previously labelled the 2012 Park Street rape case as a ‘shajano ghotona‘ or a ‘made up event‘. Her telling negligence of the Sandeshkhali gendered violence cases reiterated the fact that despite being the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal, she has been complicit in perpetuating the patriarchy and rape culture in the state.
The lack of safety of women in workplaces
The Kolkata rape and murder case violently puts into perspective how women are not safe anywhere. A government hospital which is supposed to be a safe space for doctors, patients and medical students is the site of a brutal rape case, making it clear that women are always at risk, even after 78 years of the nation’s independence.
The lack of a common room in medical colleges and hospitals for women trainee doctors who often pull all night shifts and need a place to rest shows how access to safe spaces is of utmost importance to medical professionals of marginalised genders who are perpetually at risk in public and private spaces.
Young doctors are often at the receiving end of threats and attacks from patient parties in hospitals. In 2019, a junior doctor was beaten up and assaulted by the patient party at Nil Ratan Sarkar Medical College in Kolkata. These attacks from violent patient parties can often be gendered, with female and queer doctors being at a greater risk of violence in government hospitals. There is currently no policy and safety measures in place for medicos and doctors against violence at their workplaces.
‘We’ve had nights in the general ER when all the resident docs were women and back then, the only thing we had talked about was drunk, rowdy patients and agitated relatives. Everyone knew their safety was in their own hands. Only now do we know how terrible things can really get,‘ Suhina Celosia, a graduate from Calcutta Medical College told FII.
The mass protests against rape
The news of the doctor’s death sent palpable shockwaves across the nation with thousands of protestors marching the streets demanding for proper identification of the culprits and their arrests. Rights based and feminist organisations had called for a state wide protest for women to ‘reclaim the night‘ at midnight of 14th August.
Through this protest, the organisers demanded among other things, safe and secure resting rooms for women and other marginalised gender communities professionals at every emergency service sector, including hospitals, bus and metro services at late hours of the night, the inclusion of gender equality within the school syllabus and curriculum, the inclusion of ‘Victim blaming’ within the legal framework as a punishable offence and the implementation of transparent ICC bodies in professional working sector.
Sujata shared how there were drunk men present at the supposedly women only protest, screaming over the slogans raised by women and gender minorities and on some occasions ‘molesting female protestors‘.
On 14th August midnight, protestors gathered at multiple key locations across the state, including Jadavpur 8B Bus Stand, College Street and The Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata to protest the inhuman rape and murder of the doctor. Initially, it was supposed to be a women and queer only protest as a symbolic gesture to reclaim the night. However, as Sujata Roy writes on Instagram, ‘Men had hijacked the protests at Jadavpur.‘ Sujata shared how there were drunk men present at the supposedly women only protest, screaming over the slogans raised by women and gender minorities and on some occasions ‘molesting female protestors‘.
‘The protest by women to reclaim the night was turned into something else by an aimless and insensitive crowd who hijacked the night. This crowd of men have little to no knowledge of how protests are and should be,‘ Sujata said.
Ankana, another protestor who had joined the Reclaim the Night protest shares, ‘For me the past few days have been mind numbing and hard to process, the feeling that we are not safe anywhere, not even a government building which happened to be the victim’s workspace. Seeing so many women out on the roads at night was somewhat reassuring, however I can’t help but feel like it’s all very temporary.‘
Ro, another protestor who had joined the demonstration at Jadavpur shares, ‘I returned home with two of my friends late at night yesterday and it took us 45 minutes to get a taxi to take us. no public transport was available, and ubers were cancelling left and right. Thankfully no man tried to make a pass at us but doesnt mean I wasn’t scared of worse happening. We had drunk men shouting slogans beside us and for the first time I felt uncomfortable protesting.’
On a note of hope, Anindita, shares, ‘But on a very different note, despite all the devastation, last night felt very special. For the first time in my life i could walk around the streets until very late at night without any fear Everything I had ever only imagined before, came true. For some moments at least, I was living in an euphoric dream. The female spaces I was taught about and read in theory books, I experienced them last night. For the first time in a long while, I felt that a revolution is not only possible but imminent.’
But as the protestors marched through the major streets of Kolkata, in the middle of the night, RG Kar Medical College was attacked by hooligans and goons who were allegedly from TMC.
But as the protestors marched through the major streets of Kolkata, in the middle of the night, RG Kar Medical College was attacked by hooligans and goons who were allegedly from TMC. They destroyed evidence and vandalised the hospital as students, doctors and protestors were locked in and trapped, fearing for their lives. The hooliganism went on as the police watched on, not trying to actively stop them, despite being on campus.
Violence against women perpetuated by state terrorism and rape culture
As India marches into the 78th year of Independence, we are once again faced with the question of women’s safety. What do we do when the State is apathetic towards our grievances and actively perpetuates our suffering? Do women in places of power actually care or are women’s issues only weaponised for the vote bank? Before we see the RG Kar rape case as a singular horrifying incident, do we not need to address this crisis in the context of rape culture that pervades through every fabric of our society?
Addressing this, Anomitra Paul, a feminist studies scholar at the University of Florida shares, ‘What happened to the trainee doctor in R.G. Kar doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s a result of years of systemic violence against women, that very much continues to be justified by the institutions of our country. The massive middle class population in Kolkata has suddenly woken up to this case of rape and murder because of its brutality and the media attention it received. But the truth is, beginning from our schools and colleges to our work lives, we grew up in constant fear of living our lives as women. The slightest deviation from the dictated norms of “modesty” and “honour” comes with the foreboding that any man can sexually assault a woman staying out late at night, wearing what she wants, and behaving the way she deems right, and the perpetrator would face no consequences. This is how the Hok Kolorob movement began in 2014 as well, when the erstwhile Vice Chancellor of JU had the audacity to ask the parents of the student who was sexually abused what she was wearing, who she was with, and if she had been inebriated. Never have I seen a man being asked why they were out late at night, inebriated or otherwise, harassing women.’
Until, we hold people in power accountable and call out rape culture at every nascent stage to nip it in the very bud, incidents like these will never cease to occur. It is crucial to note that even though the victim in the RG Kar case did everything by patriarchy’s book, from not being out late in public, working to save lives as a doctor, not wearing certain kinds of clothes etc, she still became a victim of gruesome sexual violence and murder.
This goes on to show how violent rape cases are systemic and a product of rape culture. The only way to make sure such incidents do not repeat themselves is to confront rape culture whenever it manifests itself, shift the onus of blame and safety from women to men and to not stop agitating and speaking up about gender based violence, lest this conversation, too, dies out like another Nirbhaya.
