Supreme Court On Women Safety: 'Feeling of insecurity among women doctors, cannot leave security to contract workers', Supreme Court asked tough questions

Posted on 19th Sep 2024 by rohit kumar

Protests are still going on in many parts of the country after the incident with a 31-year-old woman at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College. At the same time, the West Bengal government is in the dock in front of the Supreme Court regarding the safety of doctors, where the apex court silenced the Bengal government with tough questions.

 

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud fired questions.

 

As the Bengal government's lawyer, senior advocate Kapil Sibal listed the steps taken by the state government to increase security in hospitals during the hearing on Tuesday, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud questioned why there were contract workers and not regular policemen on security duty in the hospital. The Chief Justice also pointed to the fact that Sanjay Roy, accused of the rape and murder of the doctor, was a contract worker who had unhindered access to every corner of the hospital.

 

The Chief Justice asked whether the new security personnel deployed in the hospitals were policemen or contract workers on duty on behalf of the state government to ensure the safety of female health workers. Sibal replied that they were policemen and clarified that the contractual staff on security duty was a short-term measure and they would be replaced by regular policemen.

 

Contractual staff had access to the entire campus.

 

The Chief Justice said, "You know Kapil Sibal, what happened? The accused was a contractual staff. If you are going to have another group of contractual people. So these contractual people will be trained for seven days and then they will roam around in the hospital. What security will the young doctors, especially women doctors, get with these contractual staff roaming around in the hospital at night?"

 

The Chief Justice said, "There is a feeling of insecurity among women doctors. They don't know who these people are." Sibal replied that CISF personnel are currently deployed at RG Kar Medical College and junior doctors, who are on 'kaam bandh' protest, may join duty. "CISF will be there for a short time," the Chief Justice replied. Sibal said that the state government will make arrangements by then.

 

Despite police chowki, FIR delayed

The Chief Justice told the state government that when you hand over security to contractual employees, especially in hospitals, where people are on duty for 36 hours, there is a problem. There is virtually no security for women doctors. To this, Sibal said that there is a police chowki in every hospital, to which the Chief Justice replied that despite the police chowki, the FIR was delayed.

 

When Sibal replied that if the court wants, the state government will dissolve ratirar sathi (people on night duty), the Chief Justice said that it is not a question of the court's will, we are not in charge of governance. Sibal said that the court should have some faith in the state machinery.

 

Young girls come to study medicine.

The Chief Justice said that young students come to government medical colleges to study medicine. He said that these are young girls directly from class 12 who will be there for five years. We are dealing with young people in the age group of 18-23 years. They are particularly vulnerable and must be protected. He emphasized that regular policemen should be deployed on duty in the 45 medical colleges in the state.