‘Don’t Want Exemption from Night Duty, Just Want to Be Safe,’ Say Women Doctors

Several women doctors tell The Quint that harassment, gaslighting, and stalking are 'routine' at their workplaces.

"You just have to suck it up and do your job – and hope nothing bad happens," says Divya (name changed), a 28-year-old public health specialist based in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur.

For women doctors in India, the work environment of the 31-year-old post graduate trainee doctor, who was allegedly raped and murdered at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, is far too familiar. Even as the recent crime has left them in shock, what's also commonplace is feeling unsafe and facing workplace harassment on a regular basis.

"We have all done long shifts and night duties. We have all had dinner with our colleagues at an ungodly hour when we could finally take a break, and then found a quiet place to take a quick nap before we had to return for duty."

Prerna, a paediatric cardiologist in Kochi

"What she did was so routine. That's what makes it scarier. She could just as well be any of us," Prerna tells The Quint.

"People outside the medical fraternity probably don't know about this. But there is a huge burden of us just trying to survive while we are doing our work," Divya adds.

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Dark Alleys, Empty Corridors: 'Feeling Unsafe is Common'

Within hospitals, particularly sprawling medical colleges and government hospital campuses, women doctors tell The Quint that there are areas 'notorious' for being unsafe for one reason or the other.

"Everyone knows which these areas are in their hospitals. This is true for the whole medical fraternity," says Prerna.

She recalls,

"There was an alley in our hospital that we had to cross to get from one department to the other. At night, men on bikes would often go through there snatching phones – and even sexually harassing women. We were always scared to go through there, especially late at night, but we had no choice."

Shweta, a paediatrician based out of Delhi, shares a similar experience from another hospital.

"We have felt unsafe simply walking from one department to another at late hours because the corridors would be dimly lit. And there would be patients, attendants, and unidentified people sleeping or loitering around," she says.

Divya recalls one specific dimly lit corridor in her college hospital. "When I was an intern, we heard that a resident was assaulted. She survived, but she didn’t report it to the police."

"What the administration did was to tell us to avoid that corridor, which is impractical," she adds.

What the administration did not do, however, was to fix the lighting in the corridor or beef up the security.

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'Stalking, Victim Blaming, and Victim Shaming'

"I was stalked for almost three years by a relative of one of my patients when I was doing my residency in Aligarh," shares Shweta. "He somehow got my number and then started incessantly messaging me and calling me. They turned into threats when I didn’t respond."

When Shweta's friends in the hospital found out that she was being stalked, she says, they tried to get her exempted from late working hours. "But others in the department started raising their eyebrows, saying, 'Why should she get special treatment?' Some even said I was making excuses to get out of night duty," she laments.

"I just put up with it because I didn’t know what to do. It was only towards the end of residency that a friend who had some connects with the local police escorted me to the police station and helped me report it."

Shweta, Paediatrician

"There have been times when people would leer at me, especially at night. I remember as a coping mechanism I had befriended the dogs in the area so I could delude myself into feeling safe and protected," recalls Divya.

Apart from the generally unsafe work environment, they also struggle to find a 'safe space' to rest during their long shifts. The doctors explain that most hospitals have one tiny shared duty room for interns, trainees and junior doctors, if at all.

"I would look for a place that is slightly isolated, away from crowds and patients, and there is a possibility that there won’t be security there. I remember I once slept in an empty ICU bed next to a patient because that felt like my safest option."

Divya (name changed), 28

"Even if we get space in the room, we don't feel comfortable sleeping there because we have to share it with our male colleagues," says Prerna.

She reminisces that one of the hospitals she worked at in the past had a separate room for male and female doctors, "only because there was an incident of harassment, and one lady doctor had kept raising the issue till they made it happen."

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No Washrooms, No Privacy, No Complaining

Poorva has just finished a 36-hour-long shift at an outpost camp in rural Karnataka when this reporter speaks to her. "I'm going to crash right after this," she tells The Quint. "I do this around twice a week, sometimes three times a week."

A first year post graduate student training to be an ophthalmologist, Poorva says there are other challenges that female doctors have to tackle that are rarely spoken about.

"When we are posted to camps like these and district hospitals – which are mandatory postings for all medical students – things get really bad," the 31-year-old says.

"I just had my first shower in almost 40 hours. When you’re on your period, it's so unhygienic when you don't have the time to shower or change your pad. Even if you can steal a few minutes, sometimes you don’t have a washroom or private place to do it."

Poorva

She goes on to say, "Just a few days ago, I was at an outreach camp and there was no bathroom. There have been times I’ve gone to the bushes, an empty parking lot, or a slightly secluded place to relieve myself."

A few hundred kilometers away, in a busy government hospital in Delhi, things are only marginally better, says Sunaina, senior resident, obstetrics and gynaecology.

"Usually there is only one washroom on one floor which is used by everyone, including patients and their families. There is no source of clean drinking water on the floors either."

Sunaina

"Even if we ask for something as basic as a washroom (at the outposts), they make us feel we are asking for a lot. They gaslight us saying, 'You just want privilege. There are people who don't have these facilities. Just look at your own patients.'

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Who Do You Call For Help?

The doctors The Quint spoke to say that most hospitals have security guards for gates and even ICUs, but they are simply boxes to be ticked off. There is no restriction on who can enter the hospital premises.

"I have worked in a very crowded government hospital where violence against doctors by patient-families was common. And though there were guards deployed to deal with them, they hardly ever could do anything to stop them."

Sunaina

"They were usually old and frail. They weren't armed in any way either," says Sunaina.

Prerna adds that the security guards are there for general monitoring, and not for the protection of the doctors. "We've never had security specifically for our safety at the hospital or even at an outpost."

Pleas for change are often met with apathy by the hospital authorities. "As a doctor, even a woman doctor, whether it’s your health, your safety or your wellbeing, you realise very quickly that institutionally no one is there to look out for you. You are only seen as a part of the workforce. That’s where you feel uncared for," says Shweta.

Poorva adds, "We have had instances of harassment and inappropriate behaviour. We have felt unsafe on several occasions. But it all depends on who is in a place of authority in your immediate vicinity and how strongly they feel about the safety of the medical staff."

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'Things Will Only Change if Institutions Step Up'

The knee-jerk reactions from hospitals to the heinous crime committed in Kolkata is proof enough that medical institutions still refuse to take responsibility for the safety of their employees.

A day after RG Kar Medical College was vandalised by a mob, Silchar Medical College in Assam released a circular advising female doctors to 'avoid being alone', and 'avoid isolated, poorly lit areas'. The guidelines were later withdrawn after outrage online.

Divya says her alma mater responded to the news by introducing a new hostel rule that interns and post graduate trainees on night duty must leave their hostel before 8 pm and can only enter the next day after 6 am. The move has been made to ensure students don't step out of their departments during their duty hours. "This is inhumane. We have seen what happens even if we stay in the duty rooms," says one student.

On 17 August, even the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal launched a flagship programme for the safety of women working night shifts across the state. Among the measures, the programme includes limiting the working hours of women doctors to a maximum of 12 hours and avoiding assigning them night duty as much as possible.

But women doctors are slamming the move.

"We aren't asking to be excused from night shifts or long gruelling hours. We just want to feel secure enough to do our jobs."

Shweta

"People forget that we are humans too," says Sunaina. "Our work is extremely challenging. But when you add violence to the equation, it becomes even more difficult. We don't go on strikes because we don't want to work. We do it so we can work safely."