Rape, murder of Kolkata doctor highlight failure of workplace safety provisions for women
Legal norms were flouted or were insufficient in accounting for security in spaces like hospitals where women are on call 24x7 or work irregular and long hours.
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A 31-year-old doctor was raped and murdered in her workplace – Kolkata’s RG Kar postgraduate medical college hospital on August 9. All she wanted was to rest in a seminar hall for a while during a 36-hour shift when she was attacked.
This is a heinous instance of gender-based violence at the workplace. It is a failure of the institution to abide by the Sexual Harassment of Women (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, or PoSH Act, 2013. It must be recognised as a major example of the breakdown of women’s safety at the premises of the employer – in this case, the West Bengal government, whoever be the intermediaries.
The hospital administration resorted to first describing the incident as an unnatural death – suicide – and then blaming the woman. Before the institution’s principal Sandip Ghosh resigned, he said that “it was irresponsible of the girl to go to the seminar hall alone at night”.
The seminar hall was on the premises of the employer and thus subject to Indian labour laws guaranteeing the prevention, prohibition and redressal of sexual violence. The woman also had the right to occupational safety and health and favourable working conditions.
The case has since been handed over to the Central Bureau of...
