NEW DELHI, India — Hospitals and clinics across India were largely shut down on Saturday as doctors launched a 24-hour strike to protest the brutal rape and murder of a young doctor in Kolkata.
The strike, which affected medical services across the country, saw more than one million doctors participating, disrupting routine medical care in the world’s most populous nation.
The Indian Medical Association, which organized the strike, said that hospitals would only handle emergency cases, with faculty staff from medical colleges being called in to manage critical situations. Elective procedures and outpatient consultations were suspended as the strike began at 6 a.m. local time.
The protest was sparked by the horrific killing of a 31-year-old trainee doctor last week inside the premises of RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata, where she worked. The crime has drawn comparisons to the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi, an event that triggered widespread outrage and led to significant changes in India’s sexual assault laws.
Outside RG Kar Medical College on Saturday, a heavy police presence was reported, while the hospital appeared deserted. The chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, expressed support for the protests, calling for a fast-tracked investigation and demanding severe punishment for those responsible.
The strike had a widespread impact, with private clinics and diagnostic centers in Kolkata, as well as hospitals in major cities like Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, and Chennai, shutting down or scaling back services. In Bhubaneswar, Odisha, patients were seen queuing up as senior doctors struggled to manage the influx of emergency cases. “Resident doctors are on full strike, and because of that, the pressure is mounting on all faculty members, which means senior doctors,” said Dr. Prabhas Ranjan Tripathy, additional medical superintendent of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Bhubaneswar.
The strike is one of the largest shutdowns of hospital services in recent memory, highlighting the deep frustration and anger within the medical community over issues of safety and justice for healthcare workers in India.
