People's Democracy

 DELHI RAPE CASE

 JMS Stages Angry Demo Against Hospital

ON September 16, under the banner of Janwadi Mahila Samity (JMS), hundreds of women and men staged an angry demonstration outside the Shanti Mukand Hospital in East Delhi. The demonstration took place in protest against the utter callousness and criminal negligence on part of the hospital management towards the young woman nurse whom a hospital employee sexually assaulted a week ago. The assailant also gouged out the nurse’s eye and sought to kill her. (See People’s Democracy, September 21 for the incident.)

The JMS of Delhi is an affiliate of the All India Democratic Women’s Association.

The demonstration was also joined by a contingent of nurses from the Delhi Nurses Union as well as by the victim’s neighbours in Kalyanpuri. The JMS has demanded that the government should cancel the license of the hospital and file criminal charges against the management.

Shamefully, when a delegation of the demonstrators met the management and the owner, A P Gupta, they refused to accept any responsibility. The medical officer went so far as to state that there were no injuries on the girl “except on her eye.” Such unethical and inhuman behaviour required immediate action, the JMS pointed out.

It will be noted that doctors in another hospital have already taken out the said nurse’s right eye and, because of the spread of infection, she is in danger of losing her left eye as well.

The JMS pointed out that there are thousands of private nurses in Delhi performing essential services. But the very nature of the work they perform is such that they are most vulnerable to sexual harassment, and yet there are no structures to help them. The Delhi government and the central health ministry have also failed in their duty to help the victim of this most terrible crime.

The JMS is also looking at the legal options to take action against the hospital.

The JMS memorandum, addressed to the hospital management, condemned the callous and unethical approach of the management of Shanti Mukund Hospital while handling the case of the said rape in one of the hospital rooms. A nurse attending on a paralytic patient was found locked up in the bathroom in the early hours of September 7, after being sexually assaulted by a ward-boy employed by the hospital, who also attempted to murder her. One eye of the victim was completely pulled out and the second one was badly damaged. There were clear signs on her neck of the attempt to strangulate her. Under such circumstances, she needed immediate medical help. But the hospital authorities sent her back after the police had recorded her statement. It was only after the angry residents of her colony protested that the hospital was forced to re-admit her. On September 9, the PRO of the hospital had assured a JMS delegation that the hospital would treat her with sympathy. But within two hours after the delegation left the hospital, she was asked to pay Rs 7,000 or leave the hospital.

The JMS strongly condemned this violation of medical ethics and decided to take up the matter with concerned authorities for de-registration of the hospital.

The memorandum was signed by Ashalata, Shanti Devi and Soniya Verma of the JMS, AIDWA general secretary Brinda Karat, Ms Khurana of the All India Nurses Union, Manjula of Chetanalaya, and Kalindi Deshpande and Pramila Pandhe of the AIDWA.