The last thing that a rape and murder need are platitudes, and a predictably tiresome one is being peddled after the brutal killing of a woman doctor on duty at Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Hospital on August 9. One of the guidelines issued by the West Bengal government calls for minimising night duty for women. How will this dictum — “wherever possible, night duty may be avoided for women to the extent possible” — secure safety at the workplace? This regressive move will only end up removing women from the workforce, instead of ensuring a stop to violence. With the labour force participation rate for urban women in India, ages 15 and above, pegged at an abysmal 25.2% in April-June 2024, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey’s quarterly bulletin, the governments at the Centre and States must ensure that women, employed as health-care professionals, gig and factory workers, call centre staff, auto drivers, hotel duties and journalists, are able to work safely, anywhere, and at anytime. Reducing their time at work will only lead to women losing jobs and their financial independence. The other guidelines, as part of the programme called ‘Rattirer Shaathi (helpers of the night)’, include the call for separate rest rooms and toilets for women, creating safe zones with CCTVs, and a special mobile phone app — measures which should have been already in place.
The Supreme Court, taking suo motu cognisance of the Kolkata case, in its hearing on Tuesday announced a national task force to look into the safety of doctors and medical professionals. Gender violence should be a matter of serious concern in every sphere, not least the informal sector, where women are employed in large numbers. The sweeping changes brought into the system after the 2012 Delhi rape, such as harsher laws and stringent punishment, have not been enough. The National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) annual report of 2022, the latest one available, shows that 4.45 lakh cases of crimes against women were registered, which is equivalent to nearly 51 FIRs every hour. Protocols cannot be just on paper, the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said. In 2017, when the Court was confirming the death penalty of four men, who were accused in the 2012 Delhi rape, Justice R. Banumathi had said that apart from effective implementation of laws, a change in the mindset of the society at large and creating awareness in the public on gender justice would go a long way to combat violence against women. Campaigns led by women after the R.G. Kar rape, to “reclaim the night” in Kolkata and other parts of the country, should serve as wake-up calls to governments, and society, to do it right by women.
