Female Doctors’ Safety

Prof. (Dr.) Dharmakanta Kumbhakar

(drkdharmakanta1@gmail.com) 

In 1973, Aruna Shanbaug, a junior nurse at a reputed hospital in Mumbai, was sexually assaulted by a hospital ward attendant and left in a vegetative state. The rapist tried to kill her by wrapping an iron chain around her neck. She died in 2015, after 42 years of severe brain damage and paralysis. On May 9, 2014, Dr Sarita Toshniwal, a 24-year-old postgraduate trainee at the Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH), Dibrugarh, was brutally murdered by a hospital ward attendant using a surgical knife. In 1973, in Kerala, Vandana Das, a 23-year-old medical intern, was fatally stabbed with surgical scissors by an intoxicated patient. Similarly, in Kolkata on August 9, 2024, a postgraduate trainee was raped and murdered at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. These are only a few examples of ongoing violence against on-duty female doctors and healthcare professionals in India. These incidents expose the alarming security risks faced by female doctors in many of India’s health facilities.

Female doctors and healthcare professionals are not safe in their workplaces in this country. It is now commonplace to hear news reports of female doctors, medical students and healthcare workers being physically, mentally and sexually abused by colleagues and antisocial elements. Hospitals are often considered as doctors’ second homes; to their own homes they go only to rest. It is unimaginable that these institutions could become unsafe. In most government hospitals, there are no designated restrooms or separate toilets for female doctors. They frequently resort to using patients’ or nurses’ toilets if allowed.  When working long shifts or staying late at night, they are often forced to sleep in empty patient beds in the ward or cramped waiting rooms with minimum facilities.  The victim at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital had to retire to sleep on a piece of carpet in a seminar hall after a marathon 36-hour shift, as there was a lack of proper dormitories or resting rooms for female doctors in the hospital premises. This is not only the scenario of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital but the same in most of the government hospitals in India. The authority concerned must take the necessary steps to provide designated restrooms for on-duty female doctors.

Doctors, particularly women, are vulnerable to violence due to the nature of their profession. Women, who make up nearly 30 per cent of India’s doctors and 80 per cent of the nursing staff, are more susceptible to sexual abuse in hospitals than their male counterparts. In overcrowded government hospitals with unrestricted access, female doctors and healthcare professionals often face verbal abuse, such as lewd comments, and sometimes physical and sexual abuse from drunken patients’ attendants and antisocial elements during emergency night shifts. Some individuals even approach female doctors and nurses under the pretext of checking their blood pressure, only to use it as an excuse to touch them. But we never imagined it would degenerate to a point where a doctor could be raped and murdered in a hospital. The situation has worsened over the years, with hospital campuses now often overrun by antisocial elements, drunken persons and touts, who no longer hesitate to commit heinous crimes like rape and murder.  The incidence of such crimes against doctors in India is on the rise.

In the cases of RG Kar Medical College, Dr Sarita Toshniwal and Aruna Shanbaug, the accused were predominantly hospital staff members. While Dr. Toshniwal and Shanbaug were murdered by their own hospital ward attendants, in the RG Kar Medical College case, the accused was a civic police volunteer working in the hospital. This raises a critical question: From whom do female doctors need to be protected? Their own fraternity?  During emergency night shifts and on-call duties, female doctors are often accompanied by hospital ward attendants. For most of their duty hours, nurses remain at the nurse station along with male health workers. There is a growing demand to make hospitals as safe as airports. However, if colleagues are involved in such crimes, how can female doctors and healthcare professionals feel safe in hospitals? This situation necessitates periodic psychological evaluation of hospital staff to detect tendencies toward harmful behaviour, along with reasonable duty hours to prevent such incidents. Whoever the culprits may be – doctors, health workers or the public – they must be punished. Ensuring the safety of female doctors and healthcare professionals in the workplace is paramount.

It is the responsibility of the authorities to ensure the safety of female doctors and healthcare professionals within hospitals and their campuses.  The security in most government-run hospitals is pathetically inadequate. India lacks a stringent federal law to protect healthcare professionals. Although some states have laws to prevent violence against them, convictions are almost nonexistent. Both physical assaults and crimes result from the indifference and insensitivity of the authorities towards the needs of doctors and healthcare professionals. Doctors across the nation are now questioning why it is so difficult to enact laws for their security. They demand justice, better security and improved facilities at medical campuses and hospitals, along with new rules to support their safety. Doctors need legal backing and, at least, a safe working environment where they can be assured of their own survival before they start saving others’ lives. Female doctors and healthcare professionals in India have the right to live and work without fear for their safety and to do so with dignity. There is an urgent need for systemic reforms, including better enforcement of laws, periodic psychometric tests of employees and enhanced protections in hospitals. We hope the Supreme Court and the government will lay down guidelines for better working conditions for female doctors in hospitals.