Holding candles, hundreds of thousands of women marched overnight and early this morning in cities across India to protest the rape and murder of a young doctor in a hospital, a case that has sparked outrage over the lack of safety for women, despite harsh new laws.
A 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered inside a university hospital in Calcutta where she worked last Friday, the crime sparking nationwide protests among doctors and reminiscent of the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.
“We have come here to ask for justice, because I also have a daughter. I am afraid to send her anywhere…I am afraid to send my daughter to study,” said Rinki Ghos, who participated in the demonstration in Kolkata. “That’s why I’m here today because something… has to be done, this injustice has to stop.”
About 40 protesters stormed inside the hospital where the killing took place and attacked police forces, who responded by throwing tear gas.
The doctor had retired to sleep on a piece of carpet inside a seminar hall at RG Kar Medical College after a marathon 36-hour shift, with no dormitories or rooms for doctors, her colleagues told Reuters.
She was found dead last Friday. Police said she was raped and murdered and a police volunteer was arrested in connection with the crime.
Several hospitals in cities across India suspended all services except emergency departments earlier this week as medical students staged sit-ins demanding justice.
The victim was found bleeding from the eyes and mouth and had injuries to her legs, stomach, ankles and right hand, according to a medical examination conducted on August 9 and obtained by Reuters.
In protests under the slogan ‘We Claim the Night’, women marched in various Indian cities from midnight on Wednesday, on the eve of the country’s 78th Independence Anniversary, to protest the lack of safety for women in India, especially at night .
“As a society, we need to think about the atrocities committed against our mothers, our daughters and our sisters. There is outrage about this in the country. I can feel that anger,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Independence Day address to the nation.
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