#wewantjustice — Public Fediverse posts

Where the voice of justice weeps in silent despair (Post 2/2)

While the protests by junior doctors received excellent response from the citizens of West Bengal, rest of India India, what caught ny eager attention was the movement that got initiated after Rimjhim Sinha’s call for “Reclaim the Night” on social media. Her Facebook post, on 10th August 2024, inviting people to join her near a bus stand in Jadavpur, attracted a larger-than-expected crowd. The protests transcended local boundaries, with thousands of women and common citizens taking to the streets across West Bengal, demanding justice for the raped and murdered junior doctor. It also spread in other Indian states and even in the USA. A large number of the participants included first time protestors and senior citizens. The “Reclaim the Night” campaign, which happened twice during August and September 2024, was described by Rimjhim Sinha as a new freedom struggle for women, symbolized by a viral poster of a red hand holding a crescent moon. This imagery conveyed a sense of defiance and reclaiming public spaces, traditionally perceived as unsafe for women. In a Facebook post (on 4th October 2024) she, while always supporting the movement and protests of the Junior Doctors, re-emphasized the following priorities for state level reforms.

1. Punishment shall be ensured to all the culprits involved in the rape and murder incident at RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata.

2. All workplaces, including medical centres, require secure rest rooms and crèches for women.

3. Public transport shall be made available in Kolkata and capital cities at night.

4. School curricula should include gender-equality education, sexuality education and legal education.

5. Victim blaming shall be brought under the law.

6. Impartial and transparent Internal Complaint Committee or Local Complaint Committee shall exist in all workplaces and related areas.

7. All work related areas shall have toilets for women and people of marginalized gender-sexuality.

8. Shelter and alternative income shall be arranged at the district level for women victims of domestic violence.

The above mentioned issues are all applicable to every state of India. Though these movements attracted massive mindshare and fervour, I am not sure how much it helped to meet expectations. I also failed to understand whether the process of investigation and delivering justice actually got accelerated to a desirable extent. The movement obviously did not spread in other states of India at a larger scale. As on today, we are still awaiting justice for the doctor whose death again shook our conscience. Was there enough reporting by media in English and regional languages except Bengali? The next steps of the movements are not yet clear.

I borrow words from William Radice’s English translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s poem "Prosno" (Question) to conclude my post.

And meanwhile I see secretive hatred murdering the helpless
Under cover of night;
And Justice weeping silently and furtively at power misused
No hope of redress.

[Post 2/2]

#Humanity #Human #RGKar #WomenSafety #WeWantJustice #ViolenceAgainstWomen #MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India

Where the voice of justice weeps in silent despair (Post 1/2)

The 2024 Kolkata rape and murder incident wreaked havoc in my mind.

On 9 August 2024, a 31-year-old female postgraduate trainee doctor at R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, was raped and murdered in a college building.

This immediately sparked widespread outrage and protests among medical professionals of India, opposition political parties in the state of West Bengal, and the common citizens of West Bengal, India and rest of World. Protests and solidarity marches were organized in over 25 countries, including Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, and several European nations, with thousands of Indian expatriates and supporters participating. Several celebrities of sports and cinema world sincerely voiced their strong opinion against this horrendous incident and called for justice for the victim. The duration of protests by the common citizens and doctors from outside West Bengal was mostly confined during the month of August 2024. I will keep the protests by political parties outside the scope of this post.

The intensity of protests by the junior doctors of West Bengal continued during the subsequent months. It was well coordinated by The West Bengal Junior Doctors' Front (WBJDF) and gained significant momentum leading to hunger strikes, mass resignations and fast-unto-death agitations. They not only demanded justice for the deceased junior doctor but also workplace security and a much improved hospital management ecosystem.

[Post 1/2]

#Humanity #Human #RGKar #WomenSafety #WeWantJustice #ViolenceAgainstWomen #MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India