The murder and rape of a trainee doctor as she took a rest during a long shift in a Kolkata hospital has highlighted the vulnerability of medics left without proper protections and facilities, her colleagues and friends said on Thursday.
The 31-year-old, whose killing has triggered protests across India, had ordered some food with others nearly 20 hours into a 36-hour working day on Friday and then headed off for a short sleep, staff at the R G Kar Medical College told Reuters.
"She retired to the empty seminar room which was used by on-duty doctors to rest," one co-worker said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Protests break out across India
As news of her murder spread, doctors took to the streets alongside women's groups and Bollywood stars, demanding enhanced safety measures for doctors on duty.
"Pedestrian working conditions, inhuman workloads and violence in the workplace are the reality," the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the biggest grouping of doctors in the country, told Health Minister J P Nadda in a letter released on Tuesday.
The health ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the letter, not did West Bengal health authorities about working conditions for doctors.
"The attention of the authorities was drawn time and again to the lack of facilities, but there was no improvement," a junior doctor at the hospital said, asking not to be named.
The case has drawn parallels to the notorious gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012 - a case that was the catalyst for sweeping changes in laws, including fast-track courts for sexual assault cases.
Late on Thursday, the IMA, the country's largest grouping of medics, said it would implement a nationwide shutdown of most departments, except essential services, for 24 hours from Saturday morning, the largest such strike in at least a decade.
"Doctors, especially women are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for the authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses," the IMA said in a statement issued on X late on Thursday night.
Political parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is in opposition in West Bengal, of which Kolkata is capital, said they will hold protests in the city on Friday.
A police volunteer who worked at the hospital has been arrested and charged with the crime.
Doctors say the circumstances of the rape point to the vulnerability of medics left without proper protection and facilities.
The government brought in sweeping changes to the criminal justice system, including tougher sentences, after the Delhi gang-rape, but campaigners say little has changed despite the tougher laws.