Why Indian medicine’s #MeToo moment is overdue

livemint.com:

suo motu cognisance of the widespread protests impacting medical services and set up a 10-member national task force to make recommendations on ensuring safe working conditions for medical professionals and preventing violence against them. While suggestions are pouring in from stakeholders, young medics told Mint what they endure in their professions and what it would take to make them feel safe again. According to a study by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), over 75% of doctors have faced violence of some kind at the workplace.

Every doctor who works in the emergency department has faced verbal violence, a paper published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry in 2019 notes, adding that Indian doctors face more violence than their western counterparts. Less than 20% of doctors felt safe during night shifts, revealed an online survey conducted by the IMA last month. “The R G Kar case touched a collective raw nerve because it made us realize that we were vulnerable all along.

And that nobody has our back," says Dr Christianez Ratna Kiruba, an internal medicine physician at Satribari Christian Hospital, Guwahati. Patient harassment takes many forms. A resident doctor specializing in general medicine recalls how she was stalked and filmed by a patient’s attendant in GTB’s emergency ward recently.

A physical scuffle and sexist abuses followed when she asked for the video to be deleted. The man walked out, scot-free. GTB saw a slew of student protests this year, demanding metal detectors, CCTV cameras, panic buttons installed in each ward and a control room for security supervisors, who would be able to swing into action in case of emergencies.