Members of APJUDA at a protest, demanding justice for the second year post-graduate medical student of Kolkata, who was allegedly raped and murdered, at Vijayawada GGH on Monday.
| Photo Credit: G.N. RAO
There seemed to be no let up in the junior doctors’ protests across Andhra Pradesh, as many of them continued to abstain from emergency duties on the fifth day on Monday (August 19).
It has been a week since the junior doctors in the State began their protest, demanding justice for the trainee doctor, who was allegedly raped and murdered at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
“We do not want the government to be under the impression that the protests will blow over gradually. We will continue the protests until our demands are met,” said R. Jahnavi, a junior doctor at Siddhartha Medical College in Vijayawada, and also a member of A.P. Junior Doctors’ Association (APJUDA).
While junior doctors discontinued elective duties on August 13, they abstained from emergency duties as well from August 15, to bring pressure on the Centre to bring a Central law for protection of healthcare workers.
“The Centre is hesitant to bring such a law. For that to happen, there has to be acceptance on their part that there is a rise in attacks against doctors. Previously, during one of our meetings, we were told that if they enact a law for us, people from other professions too would make a similar demand,” said Indian Medical Association (IMA) State general secretary P. Phanidhar.
At present, the State unit has not planned any strikes for this week. However, he added that a committee is being formed at the national level, and IMA members have been sought to provide recommendations to improve safety for doctors at their workplace. “We will come up with recommendations by the end of this week. If the government fails to respond positively to these, we will plan our next course of action,” he said.
Meanwhile, many junior doctors sported a black ribbon, a symbolic of rakhi, on their wrists on Raksha Bandhan on Monday. At some other medical colleges in the State, female doctors tied rakhis to their male counterparts.
“The idea was to tell our colleagues that we are with them in this fight,” said P. Achyuth, APJUDA general secretary. He said they have planned different activities at all medical colleges in the State for August 20 (Tuesday), including bike rallies, protests donning black badges, among others.
