Women doctors don’t feel safe

While the hostel at ESI Hospital where a woman doctor was assaulted last week has no security, the situation is no better in other hospitals and teaching institutes, writes Jaya Shroff.

Women doctors at most medical colleges in the city feel unsafe. While the hostel at ESI Hospital where a woman doctor was assaulted last week has no security, the situation is no better in other hospitals and teaching institutes.

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In 2002, a resident doctor was raped on her way to the bus stop from Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) in Central Delhi. Following the incident, Abhishek Bansal, union president of MAMC, said, “The institute posted a team of 30 guards from the Directorate General for Resettlement in the college premises.” There are 10 guards on campus at any given time. Still, the women doctors say they feel unsafe.

Moreover, several cases of molestation, eve teasing and thefts in medical college campuses go unreported.

Last month, a thief was caught in the middle of the night in the girls hostel in Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC). “When union members took him to the local police post, the officials refused to lodge a complaint as nothing was recovered from him. Only after the students agitated the next day, a formal complaint was registered,” said Dr Sunita Sharma (name changed), a resident doctor.

“Our institute doubles as a thoroughfare. The security is lax and no kind of screening is done,” said a second semester student at MAMC.

The students said that since a lot of surgery lectures get over around 10.30-11 at night, they prefer to walk back to hostels in groups.

Lady resident doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) also had similar complaints. “The campus is so vast and the hospital receives over 8,000-9,000 footfalls (of patients) everyday, so security will always remain an issue here,” said Dr Priya Sen (name changed), a senior resident doctor.

In Safdarjung Hospital, discussing security was almost like talking of an unheard of concept. When asked, a lady doctor responded saying, “Eve-teasing is an issue we have learned to ignore.”