Special App, Safe Zones: Bengal's Measures For Women Working Night Shifts

The West Bengal government has proposed several measures for the safety of working women during the night shift amid a nationwide outrage over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor during her 36-hour shift at a Kolkata hospital.

A special mobile app, safe zones and 'Raattirer Shathi' or women volunteers are among the five measures of the government led by Mamata Banerjee to provide safe working conditions for women in government hospitals, medical colleges, hostels and other workplaces where women are required to work during the night.

Here are the five measures:

1. There should be separate designated rest rooms with toilets for women.
2. 'Raattirer Shathi' or women volunteers shall be on duty at night.
3. Safe zones will be identified and created for women with full coverage by CCTV and its monitoring.
4. A special mobile phone app with alarm devices will be developed which shall be compulsorily downloaded by all working women and which will be connected to the local police stations/police control rooms.
5. Helpline No. 100/112 should be extensively utilised during any panic/emergency situation.

Additionally, women should be spared from night duty, wherever it's possible, said Alapan Bandyopadhyay, the chief advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The Bengal government said that it has embarked on "introspection, accountability and action" after the woman doctor's brutal murder at government-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA), which is observing a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency services from 6 am on Saturday, has put forward five demands.

A central law to check violence against healthcare personnel and declare hospitals as safe zones with mandatory security entitlements are among the demands made by the top doctors' body.

"The 36-hour shift that the victim was in and the lack of safe spaces to rest and adequate restrooms warrant a thorough overhaul of the working and living conditions of resident doctors," it added.

On August 9. the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and killed at the seminar hall of the hospital. A civic volunteer was arrested in connection with the crime the next day.

It said a central act incorporating the 2020 amendments in the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 into the draft Healthcare Services Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2019 would strengthen the existing 25 state legislations.

IMA said the brutal incident brought to the fore the "two dimensions of violence in the hospital: A crime of barbaric scale due to the lack of safe spaces for women and the hooliganism that is unleashed due to lack of an organised security protocol".

"The crime and the vandalism have shocked the conscience of the nation," it said.

A week after the rape-murder, the hospital was vandalised on August 14 by a large crowd, which destroyed various sections of the facility.

The principal of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital resigned from the post two days after the doctor's body was found. He is also being questioned by the CBI, which took over the case from Kolkata Police after an order by the Calcutta High Court.