Real story of a female doctor assault : Routine affair for uncivilized society


Few words here can’t describe the plight of a female doctor, who was brutally assaulted by a mob at her residence, for no fault of hers. This incidence happened few months back, about 200 KM away from Delhi.

It was an evening time and a boy had an accident with a bus. He was brought to a community health center.  Female medical officer who had her residence inside the hospital in staff quarters examined the patient and found that he was already dead. She explained the situation to the family members with due sensitivity, did all the paper work and returned to her residence in about an hour. Mob kept on gathering and after half an hour, they barged into the house of the lady medical officer.

They dragged her by hair in front of her teenage daughter. Mob started assaulting her with fists and legs along with a rod. Her daughter cried and shouted for help.   Mob even tried to set her on fire. This brutal and devilish assault continued till neighbours from other staff quarters saved her with great difficulty and took her away. Mob continued rampage in her house and hospital, trying to break everything.

She sustained severe head injuries and was admitted in a hospital for about ten days. What was her fault and why mob did this to her? Is being a doctor and working in remote area her fault? Everybody knew that the reason for death of the boy was what happened outside the hospital.  There was an errant bus driver, who was responsible.  Then why was she made a punching bag for venting out emotions of the bereaved relatives. Nothing and really nothing can justify this barbaric act. Emotions should not be allowed to take such a demonic form. This is simply jungle raj, goonism and  expression of a most  uncivilized kind of society, which simply cannot be excused by any sort of reasoning. The incident was protested by the professional bodies as is the routine and after few day things normalized for everybody else except that terrorised family. The said lady medical officer took posting elsewhere and as is usual, nothing much happened to the accused.

Woman doctor assault : Era worse than MAHABHARATA for female doctors

There was again same silence and little concern shown by our media, courts, prominent people, celebrities, human right commission, woman right activists and women commission. This again brings forth the hypocrisy of these people and organizations, who otherwise cry about woman rights and empowerment.  Whenever a female is assaulted, there is an outrage but the same support is not extended to a female if she is a doctor. Such bestiality should create havoc in minds of civilized people but this apathy to such incidents clearly indicates otherwise. Have we become so uncivilised that an incident such as this just remains as a small news item in a local paper? Can’t we see that such incidents are harbinger of many more in future? It is important to realise that this is the time to unify and condemn such episodes vehemently and prominently so that the miscreants realise that they cannot get away with it.

Beti bachao Beti padhao vs Violence against female doctors

Violence against female doctors: Silence of human and  woman right commissions

Doctor is a soldier : fights the enemy within human body.


I have used this analogy since the situation is similar in certain aspects (life and death situation involving human beings, a war footing effort). When there is a disease, doctor will have to find out the attacking ailment and then find a way to combat that. In emergency situations, it is usually a life and death situation. This battle may involve different kinds of armours ( medicines) and techniques( surgeries and interventions). However unlike a soldier, a doctor while treating an emergency case has many distractions like fear of abuse, assault, legal lawsuit, compelling detailed documentation to save himself, veiled and open threats of implied force (physical, verbal or legal) every day, while the battle(treatment) is going on. With all these distractions, he still has to fight and win in situations where life and death are just moments apart
Though most of doctors learn to fight, with all these distractions, with their increasing experience and wisdom but these do dampen their fighting spirit and enthusiasm. It is ironic that both the patient and attendants, though desirous of positive outcome for the patient and winning the battle against disease, act counterproductively. Although the doctor tries to do his best almost every time, in certain cases, the patient is not able to win the battle. This could be because of any reason like a genuinely difficult situation or an action or decision taken , which later turned out to be not so good in that particular patient. Such cases are usually followed by some sort of assault (physical, verbal or legal)by patient’s attendants. This is akin to weakening your own army. In a battle, when the fighting becomes more risky and fierce ,the soldier is compelled to choose between his ownself versus those for whom he is fighting and this leads to a defensive approach to his fight. Similarly the doctor if exposed to repetitive threats to his own self, will have to become defensive and that surely will affect his treatment.

Just a thought: Imagine a soldier during a war preparing a detailed documentation of his decision making and the reasons for the same so that in case of failure, his actions could be analysed by courts and lawyers over years to find out the errors with aim to punish.

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