Kolkata case: Jipmer resident doctors hold pen-down protest, form human chain

The Jipmer Resident Doctors’ Association (JRDA) staged a pen-down protest confined to elective duties for an hour on Monday as part of a nation-wide stir to express solidarity with the month-long agitation by resident doctors in Kolkata seeking justice in the rape-murder of a PG trainee at the RG Kar Hospital.

The JRDA rescheduled its pen-down stir planned initially during the forenoon to 4 p.m. following a request from the administration. They also took out a rally in the Jipmer campus from the OPD screening section to the Administration Block.

Resident doctors also formed a human chain in a symbolic gesture of solidarity with the All India Resident and Junior Doctors’ Joint Action Forum (AIJAF) that had called for a nation-wide protest in support of counterparts in Kolkata a day prior to the Supreme Court’s next hearing on the rape-murder case.

The core demands of the medicos’ stir include expeditious justice in the Kolkata case and concrete measures to ensure workplace safety and security for healthcare professionals.

Though the JRDA called off a ten-day boycott of elective services in August on the basis of “positive developments” in the Supreme Court that had suo motu taken up the case, it had continued to hold silent protests, which have been backed by the Jipmer Faculty Association, as a means of sustaining pressure on authorites to address the key concerns of the medical fraternity while minimising impact on hospital services.