#Justice for RGKar: When Will Women Achieve Equality?

Kolkata witnessed the gruesome incident of the rape and murder of a 31-year-old woman medico in RG Kar State Hospital. Her parents staying in Panihati, North 24 Parganas, said they were contacted by someone from the hospital after the incident to communicate that she had died by suicide. The girl was a post-graduate trainee in the hospital who was on 36-hours of continuous duty in the Chest Department. Her body was found in the Seminar Room in the same floor bearing the signs of brutal torture and rape.

The incident occurred on August 9, 2024. The post-mortem report is said to have spoken of severe injury in various parts of the body with signs of gangrape. Kolkata Police wanted to cremate the body immediately after post-mortem and the parents were aggrieved and expressed their anguish publicly. They said they were not allowed to see their daughter’s body for a few hours. Her colleagues and doctors protested when in spite of the signs of brutality, her family was communicated that she had died by suicide.

This incident has ignited huge protests from the students of the medical college, doctors, medical fraternity and sisterhood groups and Left- wing students, youth and women’s organisations. Ten days have passed, but the perpetrators are to be identified (only one man has been arrested so far).

The past few days have seen widespread protests, with the women of the city and the districts of Bengal giving the call of ‘Reclaiming the Night’ on the eve of Independence Day on August 14. The call was followed in the different parts of the country, in all the metropolises and even outside the country. The incident of gangrape and murder in the workplace while delivering the assigned duty is what has triggered and shaken the citizens.

The country has laws against sexual harassment in the workplace as well as anti-rape laws. But this state hospital did not have an Internal Complaints Committee, according to Visakha guidelines. As per the Supreme Court ruling.

Informed sources said the victim had sent a complaint to the authorities but it is not known what the content of the complaint was. The girl’s parents also told the media that she had expressed discontent regarding the workplace. These are now publicly known as her fellow colleagues, who are demanding justice from the day of the incident, have been speaking out.

There is a long- drawn history of discontent and protest against the Principal of R G Kar hospital, Dr. Sandip Ghosh, who is alleged to have promoted corruptive practices and a criminal nexus within the hospital premises. He was transferred twice, only to be reinstated. Ghosh was not initially not interrogated by police, which made the protesting masses more furious.

The case was handed over to the CBI by the judiciary, only after which Dr. Ghosh was interrogated. He was transferred to the National Medical College after the incident, but was prevented from joining his duties by the agitating doctors.

When the case was under the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Police, a civic volunteer was arrested in the case. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, along with many in the hospital authorities, said she wanted severest punishment, even hanging of the arrested person. However, protests throughout the city and the state are raising the question that if it is a gangrape, how can the police be satisfied by arresting only one person.

The incident has drawn huge discontent among the people of West Bengal who have turned against Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee due to the chronology of attempts to cover up the case.

Recent experiences in our country speak of repeated attempts to cover up the crime, such as in the Pune Porsche hit-and-run case. In the Kolkata gangrape case, such attempts were initiated by some police officials, who tried to offer monetary compensation to the victim’s family. Even the Chief Minister offered Rs 10 lakh compensation to her parents.

The girl’s father politely replied that both the parents had brought up the daughter to be a doctor by stitching and tailoring. They would continue to do that and would not “sell their daughter’s death”. This was the first alleged attempt to “silence the voices” of the affected family, which is a common method to quell voices of protest.

The second attempt was made by the hospital authorities, who suddenly gave an order and started implementing renovation work inside the hospital, reportedly on the same floor where the seminar room, the scene of crime, was located. This was resisted vehemently by the protesting doctors, and Left student and youth organisations. There were allegations of tampering of evidence.

On Independence Day eve, midnight of August 14, the protest gathered momentum with the “Reclaim the Night” call by women in the city. Candlelight marches and mobile torches were used to highlight independence of feminine bodies and demand justice for the girl. Social media posts bearing #justiceforRGKar started trending to organise a pan-India protest. Men also joined in. Thousands and thousands of women, from teenagers to elderly people, held the national flag in one hand and a candle on the other and marched in the city in about 330 spots in the state. A continuous sit-in was held for three days by the Left organisations -- SFI, DYFI and AIDWA -- in front of the RG Kar Hospital.

However, on August 14 night, when the streets were bursting with protests, the city witnessed the last plan to allegedly cover-up the case. While the protest was on, alleged ruling Trinamool Congress goons attacked the hospital, vandalised the wards with the motive of ‘tampering evidences”, while the police stood by. The mob was allowed by the police to break the sit-in demonstration site of the junior doctors inside the hospital premises, but common people, including women, were lathi-charged, and tear-gassed for protesting.

These attempts to cover up the crime have exposed a huge nexus between power, money and crime raging the state-run institutions that render care to people, such as hospitals. Power always has an ugly face, especially when it comes to gender- based crime. The torture and gangrape of the young girl is just a sequel to that.

The city and the entire state of West Bengal are expressing their concern, trauma and anger through protests that are still going on till justice is assured. Students along with teachers from several schools and colleges have been demanding justice. The Left Front and Congress joined a procession on August 17, condemning the vandalism in the hospital to “destroy evidence” and demanded restoration of justice.

There has been a historic participation of people from all sections in the ongoing protests, which is unprecedented. This has become a matter of grave concern for the ruling party, where contradictions within the political power equation are seeming to appear.

The only positive note amid all this is the emergence of a strong people’s voice for the cause of gender equality.  

India has, of late, seen a spike in cases of atrocities and brutality of violence against women. There has been an increase in gangrapes as well as trafficking of women and children. These indicate an increase in the power-criminal nexus in the society. To facilitate this criminal nexus, a regressive ideology on the question of women’s equality is being promoted by the power centres. This incident is a whistleblower for strengthening a new chapter in people’s movement in the country.     

The writer is Professor, Department of Economics, University of Calcutta. The views are personal.