Page 27 - EW September 2024

recurring demand for bribes. Similar- when she was sexually assaulted
ly, our demand is that submission of and murdered reportedly by several
PWD, land conversion, fire safety and individuals. Kolkata Police’s Special
school infrastructure clearances be re- Investigation Team (SIT) has taken
stored to every ten years as before. All ‘a police civic volunteer’ into custody
these demands are in consonance with as the prime suspect, and under
high court and Supreme Court orders. pressure, has transferred the case
But junior government officials don’t to the Central Bureau of Investiga-
pay any heed to court verdicts and tion (CBI) on August 13. Meanwhile
follow archaic circulars issued by the the Supreme Court in Delhi has also
state government. Incidentally the taken suo motu cognizance of the
promised nodal officer is yet to be ap- case.
pointed,” says D. Shashi Kumar, The brutal murder, which accord-
general secretary of KPMTCC. ing to India’s top court has “shocked
To independent observers of Kar- the conscience of the nation”, has
nataka’s K-12 education scene, it’s sparked a series of protest marches,
plainly evident that education ministry with large crowds including practis-
officials are expending disproportion- ing medical practitioners taking to
ate time in monitoring and regulating the streets to protest deteriorating
private schools instead of monitoring, law and order in the state, and espe-
regulating and upgrading the state’s cially the safety of working women.
46,679 government schools defined All medical graduates are obliged to
by crumbling buildings, multi-grade serve as trainee or junior doctors in exam which determines admission
teaching, rife corporal punishment residence for three years before they into medical colleges countrywide. Of
and chronic teacher truancy. are permitted to practice medicine. this number 59,053 (more than 50
State education ministry officials Now there is unprecedented ap- percent women) have qualified and
who have earned a notorious reputa- prehension that women will think will soon commence to study medi-
tion for drafting loosely-worded leg- twice about entering the healers’ cine in the state’s 34 medical colleges
islation with vast discretionary power profession in West Bengal where the including the Central government-
vested in the bureaucracy to enable law and order and justice systems run AIIMS Kalyani, 24 state govern-
shakedown of private schools, seem are crumbling and crimes against ment medical colleges (six of which
untroubled that government schools women doctors and paramedics are were started by Banerjee in 2019),
are experiencing flight of children to multiplying. According to junior one state government aided and
the state’s multiplying number of bud- doctors, most of the five women’s eight private medical colleges.
get private schools. hostels on the campus of RG Kar or women medical students, the
Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) Medical College are deserted. Of the Fgruesome RG Kar rape-murder
full strength of 700 resident junior incident has come as a great shock
WEST BENGAL doctors, only 30-40 women and confirming lack of safety and security
End beginning 60-70 men doctors are currently on college campuses. A state govern-
resident on campus.
ment August 17 directive to hospitals
There’s a general consensus to avoid night shifts for women doc-
he horrific rape and murder within the state’s establishment this tors is being interpreted as interfer-
of a second year postgrad atrocity will be a huge setback for ence with their fundamental right
Ttrainee doctor on August 9, West Bengal which has an ancient to practice a vocation or profession
inside the RG Kar Medical College and widely admired tradition of without hindrance.
and Hospital, Kolkata (estb.1886), women’s emancipation and enrol- Moreover, this horrific incident
which ironically hosted India’s first ment in higher education institu- and the state government’s casual
practicing woman medical practitio- tions. The state has a rich legacy of and inept response to it — the rape-
ner (Kadambini Bose Ganguly), has excellence in competitive exams, murder was initially described as a
rocked Kolkata and the medical prac- with around 150,000-200,000 suicide, the crime scene was permit-
titioners’ profession countrywide. school-leavers from Bengal writing ted to be vandalised, and the director
The 31-year-old woman doctor national competitive exams such as of RG Kar Hospital was protected
was resting in the seminar hall of the IIT-JEE and NEET every year. In — has also raised fears about West
medical college-cum-hospital after 2024, 102,557 students from Bengal Bengal’s image as an education hub.
a 36-hour shift on that fateful night wrote the centralised NEET-UG In 2024, Kolkata’s colleges re-

SEPTEMBER 2024 EDUCATIONWORLD 27