Women in the workforce react to Kolkata doctor's rape-murder: A call for safety

The brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor in Kolkata has shaken the conscience of the country. Doctors nationwide have resorted to protests and strikes to demand justice for the postgraduate trainee working at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in the West Bengal capital. On Thursday, the women in Bengal took midnight marches to stand in solidarity with the victim.

It will not be a surprise if these marches turn into a nationwide movement and women across the country take to the streets to demand better safety conditions at their place of work.

On Tuesday, mid-day did a story on how doctors in Mumbai also feel unsafe, especially at night, in the hospitals they practice. Today, we reveal what women in other professionals feel about the safety at their workplace.

‘Worry about being attacked in washrooms or elevators'

"I have been working at a law firm for the past five years. To be honest, I never had safety concerns at my workplace until this incident. Sometimes, we work late at night and I am never alone. But an incident like this does raise some worries. The office could be safe. But now when I think of it, sometimes while leaving work at night, the building seems empty and it is a fear that if I am alone in the elevator at that hour, something could go wrong," says Pooja Gupta, a corporate lawyer from Delhi.

"I fear for the safety of my daughter who works in a media house in Delhi," said Uma Vishwanathan, the mother of a 24-year-old journalist. "Though she does not feel unsafe at her work, there are only five others who are in the office with her when she works at night. Till the time she is home, which could be as late as 12.30 am, I stay worried. We can't trust anybody, not even colleagues who work with our kids, after hearing about such incidents," she added.

A Pune-based doctor, who works in a private hospital, said that sometimes she worries about visiting certain places in the medical centre. "Unlike other workplaces, a hospital does not consist of just the staff. There are several visitors. At night, I do feel unsafe going to the washroom, which is in one corner of the floor. Though doctors in my hospital have separate washrooms, the floor is accessible to anyone. We could be stalked and attacked and no one would know until late. It's always better to tell another woman staffer about your whereabouts. It may seem silly as we are older women but it just feels safer as they can always check on you if you don't turn up in a while," the 38-year-old doctor said.

How much has changed on the ground?

The Kolkata incident has refreshed the horrors of the Aruna Shanbaug and the Prathibha Murthy cases. The government has constituted a policy in place to ensure the safety of working women, which has several guidelines to ensure that those who work late reach home safely. Apart from this, the Vishakha guidelines also mandate the setting up of a sexual harassment cell at all workplaces. However, the 2018 #MeToo movement reflected how women hesitate approaching the cell owing to various apprehensions.

"If we raise any complaint, we expect our identities to be protected. But, there is a genuine fear that our information may leak out. Women also worry about the aftermath of a complaint. What if things get worse for us or our families if we complain about something? Revenge attacks have become a common thing, which is why women don't feel safe approaching the authorities," said a 30-year-old woman who works in a production house in suburban Mumbai.

The way forward

"One part of providing safety lies with the office. But there is little hope among women over safety because of how poor the conviction rate is in our country and how slow our legal system moves. The onus lies on everyone. We also need to change our mindset. After the Kolkata incident, I heard a group of older women in my building discussing that women, including doctors, shouldn't be assigned night shift. Such a bizarre thing to say! How can that be a solution? That is keeping women away from equal opportunities," said Mugdha Joshi, a law student from Nagpur, who is currently studying in the US.

"Today, we have a large number of women joining even our armed forces. The idea is to create conditions for safety and equal opportunities. The law needs to set a deterrence for other rapists and sexual predators, which unfortunately has not happened 12 years after the Nirbhaya incident," she added.

Echoing her ideas, a women's rights activist said that the law needs to act as a deterrence to prevent future crimes.

"Once the conviction rates go up, the crimes might come down. We also need to have impactful discussions on other punishments such as chemical castrations. There needs to be a comprehensive study and a discussion on countries that have such practices in place and if it has helped in bringing down the crimes. But our Parliament hardly discusses these issues. Until another Nirbhaya happens, our legal system seems to be in a slumber. In this case, several questions have been raised on the role of the police also in the cover-up. We also need to formulate a way to ensure that agencies work independently and without influence or political pressure," said Pooja Pradhan, who works for women's rights in Nagpur.