SPRKS IN CSF: Looking at India, looking at the past again and se...

SPRKS IN CSF: Looking at India, looking at the past again and se...:   "India's doctors strike in protest at rape and murder of colleague",  I read the headings that has been in the news of late ...

Looking at India, looking at the past again and seeing the present...

 

"India's doctors strike in protest at rape and murder of colleague", 

I read the headlines that has been in the news of late and I am transported to the one  call duty day many years ago, on the near side of the 1980s . I was a newly minted Doctor, idealistic, trying to view the world around me with part naïvete and part self importance. There I was trying to catch some sleep after attending to a few patients who came in to the causality after  a fight and after them was  a young lady brought in by ''a neighbor saying she was found unresponsive ...

 I had  tried to get more info but the man who brought in this young lady  said that he 'will go get her family' and promptly disappeared .Later it turned out that were more twists to the story( may be that's for another time ).The young lady was pregnant and  had ingested paramer -a poison in an attempt to commit suicide .After all this there I was,  in the call duty room, trying to get some shut eye after having stabilized the young lady and  transferred her to the ward .

There was a knock on my door and as I slowly shut my eyes... so I got up and looked out through the window, but the corridor and the entrance to the causality area( the small ER of this hospital) stayed empty.

 Except for a wandering street dog there was no one astir  and the bare streetlights cast stark shadows of the banana trees leaning towards the road from the yard past the road. Here I was at three AM , trying to get back to sleep, yet again. I pulled up the hospital issue sheets over my head and closed my eyes . I felt the door to the call room being pushed , so I got up again and asked 'who is it', but all that i heard was silence interspersed with the snoring of the Nurse Madhavi who was  on duty for the night . I returned to the bed , but my alertness would not allow me to sleep .

As I slowly drifted back to sleep , there it was again.... a strong push , almost an attempt to force the door. This time I was more annoyed , and shouted out 'who is it , what do you want ' . There was the face of the senior doctor , Dr. Kurup, a middle aged man at the window insisting that I open the door to examine a patient . My innate sense felt that something was odd, very incongruent  and hence  I refused , I was threatened with very dire carrier destroying consequences, as he tried to break down the door . As he pushed against the door ,I pushed my whole weight against the door .In the tussle he got hold of the end of my saree pallu, pulled it and tried to disrobe me , but I was more determined , I  managed  to wrap the other end to the bed frame and  yet held the door with all of my weight against it. The force by this senior doctor pulled the  bed against the door. Despite all this commotion Nurse Madhavi snored even louder... At  the present time  as I look back, I see her as  colluding with this beast of a doctor.

As it got closer to the morning , there were movements in the street outside with people getting their coffee and breakfast from the 'thattukada' and the monster retreated . As  he left in the morning at the end of the shift he made a snide remark, as he passed by me while I checked the vitals of a  new patient, ' I know where you live'. It made me  afraid but a determination laced with outrage took over .

What is a young trainee resident doctor to do? ,face the society  which is always ready to blame the female , let someone  know about  what happened? ... ah the shame of it all .

I decided that I have to address it ( something no  girl will ever do , due to how the society at large  viewed it). Yet I had to act ...

I spoke to the chief medical officer, who was reasonable , he said "Dr. Kurup has high political connections, so you have to decide how you want to proceed, be careful whatever you do"etc ..

After the morning rounds, I went straight to the health directorate office and filed a complaint .

So, what happened after all that...an investigation was initiated, but quashed and tabled after a month, with supposedly a call from the health minister , per my  befriended inside source of a secretarial staff member  at the  health directorate . The very next day  after my complaint to the state health director our  chief medical officer got transferred to a 'god forsaken corner of the state' . My father who was also a government official had an investigation with a trumped up charge which got dropped after many months . There was also , may be an an attempt or two  on my life...one was a bike almost running me over as I walked from the bust stop to our house one day , yes at mid day and I just ran into a nearby shop .

We were  to have a send off dinner party at the end of the period for all us trainees after a few months as we completed the trainee  period. There was to be  a boat ride and dinner at the boat club . However I was advised by another colleague to not be  alone at any time , was warned there are  some dangerous elements involved .Despite all calls , taunts etc. to be on the boat I refused, and stayed wherever there were 3 or more people the whole time  .

'How dare  a young female doctor stand up to such politically powerful being' , wonder if this was how Dr. Kurup felt  as he made all those moves . 

I wonder how it would have evolved if I didn't have the courage that itself came out of the strengths of my growing up with the supports that I had from my own family, or if it occurred in another state in India. If this could happen in the much women powered and education forward state of Kerala, I dread to think how many such incidents happened and happen in other places .

I am glad that  I filed the complaint, and I am thankful that at such a vulnerable time I had a supportive chief medical officer who I felt I could ever so briefly inform of what transpired, despite all  the society imposed shame  .

The corrupt powers in all parts of the world pretty much functions the same way, may be the difference is how they each  make their  attempts to cover up somewhat differently, but outside of that it is all the same...

Did India progress when it comes to empowerment of the women? I doubt it , if the various chats and groups' take on the current strike for asking for a  bare minimum safety for female doctors at work is any indication, the there has been no progress ...

The male dominated societies forget that every male has a mother who is a female and if not for that  female's care  they would be naught. Can they offer a little respect where it is due to the females of this world , may be the societies have to re-learn  to value females more than objects. In India , despite all the progress the minds of people have shrunk and hence much progress is needed to open and allow the minds to grow , especially for a society that had so much lost learning that got dissolved with time and presently is limited to pandering of some form or another. I hold that hope especially for the land where once giant minds of learning  grew  and was a beacon of  tolerance and equality before it all was buried ...

( by PC3, 08/17/2024)