“Men’s ‘endeavour’ for the emancipation of women only perpetuates woman’s slavery and hampers their emancipation. The pretence of men that they respect women and that they strive for their freedom is only a ruse to deceive women. Have you ever seen anywhere a jackal freeing the hen and the lamp, or the cat freeing the rats, or the capitalists freeing the workers?”
“Man treats woman as his own property and not as being capable of feelings, like himself. The way man treats women is much worse than the way landlords treat servants and the high-caste treat the low-caste. These treat them so demeaningly only in situations mutually affecting them; but men treat cruelly and as slaves, from their birth till death.”
– Periyar E V Ramasamy
17th September marked the 145th birth anniversary of Periyar, the champion of social justice in this country, a crusader against patriarchy, brahminical oppression, and cultural imperialism. With every incident of crime on women by the patriarchal state, the patriarchal ruling class has reminded us of the above words. Be it Kunan-Poshpora 1991, Gujarat 2002, Park Street 2011, Delhi 2012, Kamduni 2015, Unnao 2017, Kathua 2018, Hathras 2020, Hanskhali 2022, the list goes on.
A little more than a month back, on 9th August, a barbaric incident of rape and murder of a 31-year old young PGT doctor took place in a government hospital, R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata. A series of events followed where a massive cover-up orchestrated by the administration, the law and order, and the government led by the ruling party Trinamool Congress unfolded.
Soon after massive protests broke out sporadically in the city and subsequently in the state which many of us probably have never experienced before. A mass awakening against the age old patriarchy, the patriarchal state, the threat culture of patriarchy which has prevailed for ages. All we could see a ballad breaking out to break the shackles. Women of Bengal called for a historic movement “Reclaim the night, reclaim the right”. On 14th of August, every corner, every street of the state was filled with women giving a war cry against the patriarchal state, with slogans like “প্রীতিলতার এই মাটিতে ধর্ষকদের ঠাঁই নেই/রোকেয়ার এই মাটিতে ধর্ষক দের ঠাঁই নেই” (there is no place for rapists in the land of Pritilata and Rokeya) and “Justice for RG Kar” became a household slogan. And this continued. Against patriarchy, corruption, exploitation, threat culture.
Besides this, another one who has been instrumental behind such a huge widespread global mass movement is West Bengal Junior Doctor’s Front (WBJDF). The front has been leading a continuous battle for the past 38 days for justice for their colleague who lost her life in the hands of a nexus of systemic corruption in healthcare. They have declared a ceasework until their demands are met. The colleague who lost her life during some rest after 36 hours of duty on a stretch. The junior doctors have been protesting from day one in corresponding medical colleges. But on the midnight 15th August when the entire state led by women, were reclaiming the night on the streets, a horrible incident happened where the seminar room of the 3rd floor was attacked by goons (with the intention of destroying the crime scene). The stage for the protest was also attacked. Meanwhile the principal of RG Kar, Dr. Sandip Ghosh, infamously said “its irresponsible of her to be roaming alone so late at night”. This led to a major outrage followed by massive allegations against Dr. Ghosh of having led the threat nexus of ruling party, the financial irregularities, the TMC sponsored syndicates of corruption rackets running in the healthcare system. Sandip Ghosh has been a very close aide of the ruling party. So close that even after all the allegations he was just moved from one position to the other.
The junior doctors under the banner of West Bengal Junior Doctirs’ Forum (WBJDF) have been fighting for justice for their slain colleague and to uproot corruption in health-sector. Besides their stage protests, they have led a number of mass rallies in the city where thousands of citizens have joined with the common war cry “Justice for RG Kar”. They led a protest rally to the headquarters of Kolkata police seeking the resignation of CP Vineet Kr. Goyal who was responsible for the police failure in this case. WBJDF joined by common people of Kolkata staged a 36-hours of protest in front of Lalbazar. They were barricaded, not allowed to meet the CP to hand him over the deputation for his resignation. Finally, police had to let the protesting doctors come in. This was a huge feat. Apart from this, WBJDF also conducted
- Abhaya Clinic – a health camp organised by doctors from all strata
- Janatar Matamat, Rajpothe adalat (People’s courts)- conducted outside the abhaya clinics to address common people on their views about the demands and movements.
- Abhaya’s night – staying awake 12 am onwards on 9th September night staying together in each other’s support.
- A cease work in all sectors for 30 minutes between 10-10.30 am on 9th September.
Today since 10th September, the junior doctors are on a picketing protest outside the headquarters of the department of health. They also led a rally “swasthya bhaban safai abhijan” on the following points:
•Evidence tampering (the PWD order to demolish the rooms beside the seminar room allegedly had been discussed with the DME, DHS.)
• Swasthya Bhavan had not taken any measure against the threat syndicate, paper leaks of University exams etc. despite deputation by doctors.
• Swasthya Bhavan fed false information to the Supreme Court maligning the junior doctors.
• Swasthya Bhavan perpetuated a ‘threat’ of taking ‘action’ against if they don’t discontinue ceasework.
The five point demands are:
- Justice for Abhaya, punish the culprits.
- Suspension of Sandip Ghosh, removal of DME, DHS, Health secretary
- Removal of CP, action against DC North, DC Central
- Increased security in the premises, robust referral system, permanent not contractual staff appointment, medical assistant superintendents, professional counselor, preventive environment, proper internal complaints committee according to POSH 2013
- End threat culture, ensure resident doctors association, student unions, and WBMC elections.
With these demands they have been staging a protest outside the Swasthya bhaban. Bengal, the land of revolutions, has seen very few protests like this. Thousands of medical students joined by common people across professions, across class, genders joined them. People are sending necessities like food, medicines, tarpaulins, bio toilets, cots everything in solidarity, something similar to what took place at Singhu border in 2020-21. It became a festival of masses especially after the extremely objectionable remark by the CM asking people to ‘return’ to festivities on 9th September.
The ruling party Trinamool Congress and the chief minister Mamata Banerjee has alleged several times that the movement by WBJDF is being funded by other political parties. But WBJDF has repeatedly refuted the claims of them being backed by any political party. They have even driven out representatives like Abhijit Ganguly (MP, Tamluk) and Agnimitra Paul (MLA, Asansol Dakshin) of Bharatiya Janata Party, the hindutva fascist ruling party at the center and main opposition party in West Bengal with ‘go back’ slogans.
“Revolutions are the festivals of the oppressed and the exploited. At no other time are the masses of the people in a position to come forward so actively as creators of a new social order as at a time of revolution.”
-V. I. Lenin
And we witnessed something very similar here. It became the festival of the oppressed. A mass movement which spread into every corner, every house in Bengal. People sloganeered together, stayed together, with a spontaneous representation of the working class. Despite this movement being alleged to be a “movement of urban elites.”, the working masses of the village, small towns have joined from day one. We have seen protest rallies by rickshaw pullers, domestic workers etc. The Swasthya bhaban dharna manch was also joined spontaneously by different sections of the working class. Some brought food while some brought tarpaulins to protect the site from rain. Common people kept coming in every day on the way back from their work, staying overnight. Meanwhile there has been another rally of about 50,000 people.
WBJDF has been trying to visit the chief minister, chief secretary, and the administration with their five point demands and a live streamed meeting but there was multiple denial to transparency. Finally after several failed attempts the government and the WBJDF came on a term to have the meeting at CM’s residence with MoM being documented from both parties.
Finally after this meeting the CP, DC-North, DC-Central, DME, DHS were transferred from their corresponding posts. Small but a significant victory against a fascist, autocratic state power. The patients at the government hospitals and medical colleges have been repeatedly saying that despite initial hassles, they are receiving satisfactory service and there is no cease to the treatment. Admission, OPD, OT, diagnostics, emergency everything is functioning.
The protests continue until all the demands are met. The Supreme Court has reprimanded the government of West Bengal on bills like “Ratri Sathi” which bars women from working at night. The apex court has clearly mentioned that it’s the duty of the state to ensure the security at the workplace for women, not denying them night shifts. The apex court has also addressed the demand to appoint full time security personnel instead of running a system with contractual staffs.
The ruling party led by Mamata Banerjee has brought allegations of patients deaths (29) due to ceasework whereas many were cases brought in critical conditions who could not be saved at any cost. In some cases wrong referrals also has been done under the influence of TMC leaders. And statistics says the death rates at the government hospitals are much higher in other months caused by the poor infrastructure and endless corruption.
Healthcare system is plagued with a lot of internal challenges rooted in a crumbling infrastructure, webs of corruption, and severe underfunding. The lobbies carrying out threat networks in the campuses under the leadership of influential leaders of the ruling party and their stooges like Sandip Ghosh who has spearheaded such syndicates in the premises, were even seen in the crime scene after the incident of 9th August. Healthcare is a right, it’s not a commodity. The struggle for justice by WBJDF correctly targets it.
Huge number of protesting students, commoners got beaten by Trinamool Congress goons, by the police in places like Jadavpur, Barasat, Mathabhanga, Naihati etc. Everywhere they received rape and murder threats. Release of a lot of protesting activists behind the bars on false charges is being demanded. This is a mass awakening which we have hardly seen in the past few decades. In a country where judiciary has been said to have become a tool of ruling class, people are on the streets with one demand “We want justice”!
Although there is a very long way to go till half the sky can be truly claimed, the struggle that brought the West Bengal government to its knees must be hailed.
Smash patriarchy! Smash fascism!
