IMA makes five demands for doctors and healthcare workers' safety after Kolkata rape-murder case

Days after a trainee woman doctor was raped and killed at a state-run medical college in West Bengal, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has pressed for five demands for the safety and welfare of healthcare workers. This comes a day before the medical association has called for a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency medical services (from 6 am on Saturday to 6 am on Sunday) to protest against the alleged rape and killing of the postgraduate doctor and vandalism at RG Kar Medical College where the incident took place.

Speaking to news agency PTI, IMA chief Dr RV Asokan said 25 states have laws against attacks on doctors and hospitals but there have been no convictions so far. These laws are mostly ineffective on the ground and do not serve the purpose of deterrence, he added. "We request the government to reconsider introducing the draft Healthcare Service Personnel and Clinical



Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2019, incorporating the amendments in the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 as approved and passed by Parliament in the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, 2020," Asokan said.

Here are five demands by IMA:

1. All hospitals across the country should be declared safe zones like airports so that doctors can work without fear.

2. There should be a central law to check violence on healthcare workers.

3. The family of the victim in the Kolkata incident be given decent and dignified compensation.

4. A decent investigation, and time-bound prosecution as well as appropriate punishment for the culprits of the Kolkata incident.

5. The working hours and working conditions of the resident doctors should be regulated.