(Calcutta) Des milliers d’Indiens ont défilé dans les rues de Calcutta vendredi pour réclamer justice après le viol et le meurtre d’une médecin de leur ville, exprimant ainsi l’indignation dans leur pays face au problème chronique de la violence à l’égard des femmes.
La colère de la population locale s’est mêlée à celle des soignants qui ont intensifié leurs manifestations à travers l’Inde, des cortèges ayant été aussi organisés vendredi dans la capitale New Delhi et à Nagpur, dans l’État du Maharashtra (centre).
À Calcutta, dans l’est, des centaines de médecins et autres professionnels de santé se sont rassemblés, au lendemain d’une manifestation massive, essentiellement de femmes qui dénonçaient ce crime.
Cela fait une semaine que le corps ensanglanté et meurtri de leur collègue de 31 ans a été retrouvé dans l’hôpital public où elle exerçait.
« Nous voulons la justice », ont scandé les manifestants, brandissant des pancartes manuscrites sur lesquelles on pouvait lire : « Pas de sécurité, pas de soins ! »
Sumita Datta, 59 ans, a partagé son dégoût qu’une telle agression ait pu être perpétrée « dans un hôpital connu au cœur de la ville ». Balayant la foule du regard, elle a ajouté : « Tant de gens sont venus […]. It feels like hope is being reborn.”
Since Monday, doctors at government hospitals in various Indian states have suspended non-urgent care for an “indefinite” period, demanding greater safety at their workplaces.
PHOTO FRANCIS MASCARENHAS, REUTERS
Resident doctors during a protest in Mumbai, India, August 16, 2024.
“We are intensifying our protest actions […] “to seek justice for our colleague,” said Suvrankar Datta, a clinician and researcher in radiology at the state-run All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital in New Delhi.
Many medical unions, both in the public and private sectors, supported these walkouts.
“The strike will continue until all demands are officially met,” Dhruv Chauhan of the Indian Medical Association’s junior doctors network told the Press Trust of India on Thursday.
“Monstrous behavior”
The Indian Medical Association has called for a “nationwide shutdown of services” for 24 hours starting Saturday, with all non-essential procedures suspended in private hospitals.
The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a federal agency, in a bid to “instill public confidence”.
According to Indian media reports, the young woman was found dead in the seminar room of this university hospital, suggesting that she had gone there to rest.
In a petition to the court, the victim’s parents said they suspected their daughter had been gang-raped.
Police arrested a man who worked at the hospital, helping people through queues. He was taken under heavy security to undergo a health check on Friday.
PHOTO DIBYANGSHU SARKAR, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A majority of women participate in the rallies organized all over India.
Sexual violence against women is widespread in India, with an average of nearly 90 rapes per day reported in 2022 in the country of 1.4 billion people.
The rape and murder of a young woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012 sparked huge, sometimes violent, protests.
Under public pressure, the government had enacted harsher sentences for rapists and even the death penalty for repeat offenders.
Several new sexual offences have also been introduced, including harassment, and prison sentences for officials who fail to record rape complaints.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday demanded that “monstrous behaviour against women” be “severely and swiftly punished”.
Indian health workers are also demanding the implementation of the Central Protection Act, a bill aimed at protecting health professionals from violence.