The tragic incidents of Kolkata are blatant acts and they are a sign of complete destruction of all decision-making and executive agencies of the state and society, starting from the epicentre — the hospital — which could not provide protection to the victim. The complicity exposed in this heinous act ultimately ensures that the law enforcers, the government, the media, the society and the political parties are blamed.

It is almost a catastrophe that shocked at least the women section of the medical profession due to the occurrence of the heinous act. No excuses, the act committed by the hooligans in the hospital in Kolkata and their intentions to erase all evidences with the help of the aftermath incident, reveals the true colours of the elements indulging in this dark design. The act naturally brought the entire healthcare fraternity of the country under one umbrella and the demand was to expedite the execution of immediate justice through the available legislations that were in force.

In countries like India, gruesome, inhuman, heinous and macabre incidents involving women in general and the female gender of the young age group in particular are causing grave concerns in the civil society which promises equal rights and responsibilities through the constitution of the country. These gruesome and morbid acts of intensity create ripples in the society which usually prefers to lead a normal life within the framework of the constitution which guarantees them the right to life. The Kolkata incident can be studied from three different angles where the female gender is subjected to patriarchal designs of life. The young doctor of course became the victim of the hooligans’ vandalism including molestation and rape by the mob before succumbing to the physical attack. Their callous, barbaric and heartless act led to widespread condemnation and condemnation of the sadistic incident. This led to a nationwide demand for a national law to prevent and retaliate against such sinful occurrences.

Indian women suffered greatly due to the Nirbhaya episode during the UPA regime when the then government took a serious view of the situation and brought in the Nirbhaya Act to try the guilty according to law. This was clearly seen in the national capital Delhi in the northern part of the country where the accused who had committed the heinous act were sentenced to capital punishment. Nirbhaya has of course become a stringent law in the Indian Penal Code and it sent shock waves among the perpetrators of such heinous crimes. However, the southern part of India also witnessed a similar inhuman incident when a veterinarian Disha was abused to death on the outskirts of the state capital Telangana. The state government was fierce in addressing this incident and a state level law was promulgated and enacted with the nomenclature of Disha. Two episodes passed by and the most horrific incident involving a doctor in Kolkata came to light recently. This episode too caught the attention of the entire country, just like the Nirbhaya and Disha episodes. Medical professionals across the country stood together to fight for justice for their colleague.

It is a phenomenon that needs to be appreciated in the circumstances prevailing in the country and a law with stricter rules to bring the culprits to justice has become the need of the hour. It is the agenda of the common man in the country. With regard to the healthcare professionals, violence in the healthcare system has become a growing phenomenon worldwide, although the situation has varied from country to country. The incidence of violence is mainly related to armed conflicts such as Yemen, Syria, Gaza etc., paramilitary conflicts, civil unrest and hybrid war-like conditions in Mexico, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Congo, Myanmar, Sudan and Philippines and civil situations such as in India, Turkey, Slovenia, China and the US. A report confirming this aspect found that there is no country in the world that has remained untouched by civil situations. The healthcare professionals have been subjected to physical attacks in and on clinics, medical transports and also in the hospitals. A data from the World Medical Association indicated that a total of more than a thousand attacks on hospitals have been reported in 30 countries across the world. More than 200 health workers and 350 patients are reported to have died in these attacks. As far as India is concerned, nearly 72% of Indian doctors have faced physical or verbal abuse in their careers.

This of course relates to the prevention of incidents involving healthcare professionals. The then Chief Minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Y.S.Rajashekar Reddy, understood the gravity of the occurrence of the incidents and brought in a law that would provide protection to the private nursing homes spread across the state that provided protection to healthcare professionals. The Congress-led UPA had considered promulgating such a law at the national level and prepared a blueprint that would ensure protection and safety to healthcare professionals. However, the proposal remained a distant dream in the present regime.

Kolkata is not an isolated incident. And the victim of the heinous Kolkata act is not the only victim and the only death in the country. There was Nirbhaya when North India came to the rescue and there was Disha when South India showed solidarity. However, the part where the agreement is extended is limited to a few groups in those two incidents and in the case of the Kolkata victim, the medical fraternity was at the forefront, which emphasized the need to punish the guilty.

In a country where we say “Where the mind is without fear” the gory act has created a nightmare for young women doctors growing up. The heinous act should unite the entire society irrespective of profession, caste and creed to fight the evil and “hold their heads high” as Rabindranath Tagore put it. That is the need of the hour. An act with stringent laws to protect the healthcare professionals across the country, a law that punishes the perpetrators of sinful acts of the female gender and a unity in demanding all these laws at stake per country while becoming the sole stakeholder.

Dr. Kadiam Kavya is the Member of Parliament of Warangal LS in the state of Telangana