India is incomplete lockdown and police officers whose civic duty is to protect the citizens of the nation are behaving like wolves. Grabbing, assaulting, abusing any woman they can get their hands on. Nirbhaya just got justice, but it seems like police officers patrolling the streets need to be taught a lesson. The medical fraternity is working round the clock to treat patients with Covid-19, and the least they can get is safety. Still, the police of Telangana have ensured that they spread terror and negativity.
A 30yr old doctor, let’s call her “Dr. H” faced assault at the worst possible time and all she did was put her broken pieces together, bruised, went to the hospital and did her 12-hour shift because her duty as a doctor comes first (Salute to you, Dr. H).
It was around 8:45 pm on 24th March when she got a call to report on duty. As Telangana announced The Epidemic Act of the Colonial Law Era 1897, the state was in total lockdown, and there was no public transport available. Dr. H, with her friend, took a scooter to report to duty when the police stopped her. They started asking disgusting questions like are they going to meet a male friend in isolation? When they showed their doctors IDs, police snatched their IDs and said,” But how do I know whether you’re a doctor or just going to meet some man at this time of the night?”
The terrified doctors tried to call at the hospital for help, and the officer snatched their phone, slapped her, and called her a “Bloody Bitch.” Dr. H was shocked and reiterated in self-defense by hitting him, which infuriated the officer. She said, “At that point, he lost it. He grabbed my hair and dragged me into the Jeep; his fellow officers began hitting me across the thighs and legs with their batons. They groped me all over, including my private parts.”
They were forcibly taken to the police station. As the law says women have to be escorted by lady police and should be kept in the station where there is a lady officer, the officer did not care about the law and took them to all men police station. They were stranded there for hours, and when they tried to sit on chairs, the officer shouted on them to kneel on the ground. H. said. “I was terrified of what was going to happen.”
Thankfully a Senior Officer came to their rescue who hears that lady doctors were brought to the police station. He asked the officer who had brought us there to apologize to the lady doctors and let them go. The officer apologized to the senior officer and did not even look at the doctors.
H and her friend, all bruised, went to the hospital and started working. After the end of the 12-hour shift, H narrated the incident to her sister, who was shocked that such a terrifying incident took place with her sister within a few minutes away from the hospital. She told BuzzFeed, “We are four siblings, all doctors. Our father is a policeman. Duty is something we take very seriously. I teared up in anger as she told me what happened to her.”
She was outraged by the act and narrated the incident to the Head of Dr. H. They went to register an FIR against the officer and demanded CCTV footage of the areas where the incident took place. She told BuzzFeed that she was sure they would never get the footage. But the torment did not end there for H, as next day when she went to work with her sister, they had to face police officers and a senior administration who patronized them to take the complaint back.
They wanted to scrap the whole incident as a fight, which was a clear case of assault. They told H, “You will spend years in court. Her life will be ruined.’ They agreed to drop the charges if the officer apologised in front of the public and media, but even that did not happen, and all she got was a “sorry madam” in the end.
This is one incident that came to light because many pedestrians recorded the incident on their smartphones and uploaded it on social media. The horror Indian medical industry is facing amidst the Corona threat is unimaginable. Many temporary residents, staff nurses, and healthcare professionals are told to vacate their rented houses in Delhi because they are dealing with Corona patients.
Adarsh Pratap Singh, President of AIIMS Healthcare Professional Association, tweeted and tagged Home Minister Amit Shah and said, “We wanted the entire country to know that we were being harassed,” Many doctors are now stranded on roads with all their luggage, nowhere to go, across the country,” the letter said. “We condemn such an attitude and [request] an order [to stop this].
Mocking the ten-minute applause for the medical fraternity on 22nd March during Janta Curfew, Dr. Salma Khan said what they are facing as doctors are worst, and some practical measures should be taken to safeguard the healthcare professionals.
