Legislation alone will not resolve India’s deep-rooted problem with gender-based violence, say advocates calling for a comprehensive overhaul of the system.
Resident doctors and medical students stage a protest in Mumbai against the rape and killing of a doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College, India , Aug. 17, 2024. Doctors in numerous hospitals have temporarily refused care for non-emergency patients, demanding swift justice for the victim and a safer workplace for healthcare professionals.
Medical workers work long, stressful hours in facilities with limited resources. Common complaints include inadequate toilets, poorly lit areas, a lack of checkpoints to screen visitors and no alarm systems for workers to call for help in an emergency. Advocates said the task force serves to improve working conditions but will not address the wider, systemic issues of prejudice and gender-based violence plaguing the country.
The government then announced tougher sentences for rape – including the death penalty for repeat offenders – but campaigners said little has changed. “Sexual assault is not considered a serious crime unless it is accompanied by severe brutality,” said the lawyer, also a human rights activist who has represented survivors of sexual violence.
“We are a society that unfortunately is hierarchical in nature, not just on grounds of class, but also of caste, which is a deeply entrenched discriminatory attitude.” “Men have to understand they cannot do something like this, not even to have that thought in their minds. Tell our children what’s right and what’s wrong. It all begins from awareness and upbringing,” she said.
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