Indian doctors resume work but protests over medic’s rape, murder continue

India’s Supreme Court urges doctors to go back to work, assuring safety measures will be implemented within two weeks.

Some doctors in India have returned to work after an 11-day strike over the brutal rape and murder of a trainee medic at a government hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata this month.

But the protests continued in Kolkata on Thursday, where people gathered for another day of demonstrations against the latest fatal sexual assault on a woman in India, which took place on the premises of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Doctors across the country stopped work, apart from emergency services, demanding better safety measures in medical facilities and justice for the 31-year-old.

“We are resuming duties following the Supreme Court’s appeal and assurances and intervention in the RG Kar incident and safety for doctors,” the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) at New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said.

“We commend the Court’s action and call for adherence to its directives. Patient care remains our top priority,” it said in a post on X.

The RDA at the Indira Gandhi Hospital in the national capital was also ready to end the strike “in a spirit of national interest and public service”, according to a statement.

At a hearing on Thursday, the Supreme Court urged doctors to return to work and said no “coercive action” should be taken against peaceful protesters, local media reported.

The court also ordered local and national authorities to put in place safety measures within two weeks.