West Bengal holds high-level meeting on women’s safety in hospitals

Following consecutive incidents of violence against women in hospitals, West Bengal held a high-level review meeting at the state secretariat in Kolkata.

The meeting was chaired by the Chief Secretary and attended by the principals of all medical colleges in the state. Key officials, including the Director General of Police (DGP), Home Secretary, Health Secretary, and Kolkata Police Commissioner, were present. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee joined via telephone.

The meeting focused on enhancing security in medical colleges with high footfall, conducting police verification of contractual staff, and restricting entry for non-government agents in hospitals.

The immediate trigger for the meeting was a shocking incident at Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital (SSKM) in central Kolkata. A minor was allegedly dragged into a toilet and raped by Amit Mallick, an ex-Group D staff member of Shambhu Nath Pandit Hospital. Police arrested the accused after scanning CCTV footage and conducting raids.

Reports stated that the perpetrator had disguised himself as a doctor to mislead the victim, who was accompanied by her mother. The Kolkata Police Commissioner personally visited the hospital for a first-hand assessment.

In Howrah, a junior doctor at Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Medical College and Hospital was threatened while on duty.

The doctor told the media that he had been examining a patient who was not cooperating and had also kicked him. He added that the patient’s family then told him that he had not died from the kick and that he should carry on with his duty. He said that one of them had threatened him with his life, twisted his arm, and claimed to be a senior police officer, and that he had been assaulted by two men simultaneously.

Police subsequently arrested three individuals named in her FIR, including a traffic home guard.

Medical colleges were questioned on the steps taken to ensure that security guards have a clean background. A five-member enquiry committee has been formed to investigate the SSKM incident.

West Bengal Minister Sashi Panja addressed concerns about crowd management at SSKM, saying that the trauma care building at SSKM was a hotspot area that was always crowded with people, making it difficult to identify a single individual. She added that while security was important, deploying even more security in such a crowded space could create more chaos. She noted that the perpetrator had been arrested and was not a hospital staff member, and that necessary action was being taken. She also said that the victim and her parents had faith in the investigation and requested everyone to refrain from politicising or distorting the issue.

Despite this, Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the opposition, criticised the state government.