Five years ago, the state government of West Bengal in India pledged to clamp down on violence against doctors. It promised public hospitals better security equipment, female guards to support female physicians and controlled entry points, according to an internal government memo.
None of these measures had been implemented at the public hospital where a young female doctor was sexually assaulted and killed on Aug. 9, allegedly by a police volunteer, four trainee doctors there said.
Instead, in the days leading up to the crime — which prompted nationwide outrage and a doctors' strike — only two male guards manned R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, they said. They were supplemented by a few closed-circuit television cameras that did not comprehensively cover the sprawling premises, according to the trainees.
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