India’s top court creates task force on workplace safety after doctor was raped and killed

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s top court on Tuesday set up a national task force of doctors who will make recommendations on safety of health care workers at their workplace, days after the rape and killing of a trainee doctor that sparked outrage and nationwide protests.

The Supreme Court said the doctors’ panel will frame guidelines for ensuring safety and protection of medical professionals and health care workers across the country.

“Protecting safety of doctors and women doctors is a matter of national interest and principle of equality. The nation cannot await another rape for it to take some steps,” Chief Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud said.

Doctors and medics across India have been holding protests, candlelight marches and even temporarily refused care for non-emergency patients since Aug. 9 when the killing in the eastern city of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state. The doctors say the assault highlights the vulnerability of health care workers in hospitals and medical campuses across India.

The court also asked the federal agency investigating the killing to submit a report on Thursday on the status of its investigation. A police volunteer has been arrested and charged with the crime, but the family of the victim alleges it was a gang rape and more people were involved.

The suspension of work by doctors has affected thousands of patients across India. They are demanding more stringent laws to protect them from violence, including making any attack on on-duty medics an offense without the possibility of bail.

The rape and killing of the 31-year-old trainee doctor at Kolkata city’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital has also focused rage on the chronic issue of violence against women.

Thousands of people, particularly women, have marched in the streets of Kolkata and other Indian cities demanding justice for the doctor. They say women in India continue to face rising violence despite tough laws that were implemented following the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012.

That attack had inspired lawmakers to order harsher penalties for such crimes and set up fast-track courts dedicated to rape cases. The government also introduced the death penalty for repeat offenders.

Despite tougher legislation, sexual violence against women has remained a widespread problem in India.

In 2022, police recorded 31,516 reports of rape — a 20% jump from 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.