What
happened in Kolkata was not just an attack on doctors but an attack on a women.
Rape does not happen because someone is a doctor, it happens because they are
women. After this incident, The doctors rightly erupted in protest and everyone
else joined in but as more doctors in Nationwide got involved, it became more
about doctors safety rather than the safety of women.
The supreme
court has now intervened focusing on the safety of doctors. A task force has
been established to suggest what need to be done for the safety of doctors,
particularly the female Doctors. I don’t deny the importance of their
safety-especially given the violence faced by them in public hospitals, but for
me a female doctor’s safety is equally to any other women. Which includes the
safety of female doctors.
There are pressure
groups present in our society in our country, such as Doctors, Advocates, Pilots etc. However there
are many ordinary people who don’t have their pressure group, who will ensure
their safety, how they will get justice? Is this first time a rape and a murder
have occurred? So why not Supreme Court taken suo moto action then, may be we
could have saved her.
We must
understand very clearly that the issue is fundamently related to the safety of
women and violence against women. We often deviate from the main issues,
sometimes focusing on Hindu, Muslim and this time on Profession.
The real
focus should be on women whether they are 5 years old or 60 years old, whether
they are working professional or not, whether they live in urban or rural
areas, whether they are Hindu, Muslim, Dalit or non- Dalit. We constantly get
distracted from the main issues.
The Supreme
Court should focus on the Broader issues of women’s Safety. We often talk about
making harsh/strict laws and punishing severely, but do we really need more
harsher laws or we need better implementation of existing one? If we create
more harsher law, now what will happen? The offender who used to give 2 lakhs
to police now offer 5 lakhs to escape. Our focus has always been on creating
harsh law but that’s not solution.
Chief
justice of India said we can’t wait for another rape and while he was speaking
during that time only rape were happening in many part of our country
(Maharashtra, Dehradun). If 90% of offenders will be punished we will see 90%
reduction in violence, though it won’t eradicate completely. We have example where
most of the offender gets bail/discharged and unless we ensure consistent and
strict implementation of laws, this will continue.
We need a
combined efforts from the central and state governments to tackle this problem,
similar to how NITI Ayog ang GST council cooperate together. Supreme Court is
making task force, but Government should also create one. They should keep
data, monitor control rooms across the country, and track progress over the
next 5 yeas. Police reform, police training, a mechanism to stop violence
against women. We have seen amendment in laws after 2012 Nirbhaya Rape case,
entire provision of Section 375 (which defines RAPE) of Then Indian Penal Code
and now Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita 2023, got changed and widened the scope of Rape. A Separate Nirbhaya
fund of Rs.1000 crores were created, but as of 2019 states like Maharashtra,
Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, West Bengal, Gujrat and NCT Delhi used less then
5% of their allocated funds and none of states utilizing more then 50%. We
should take all the measure to protect our doctors and medical staffs but we
have to look in bigger picture. According to me in Kolkata case and many other such
case, its mainly the failure of Executive particularly law enforcement Agency
(Police).
I have full
trust and confidence that in the coming time, our executive will awaken to the
reality and through combined proactive measures women’s safety will no longer remain
a significant concern in our Society.
