IMA to hold nationwide protest on June 18, over 350,000 doctors to join

The IMA informed organisations like the Association of Physicians of India, the Association of Surgeons of India, the Medical Students Network, Junior Doctor Network (JDN) will take part in the protest, beginning from 9am on Friday.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) will hold a nationwide protest on Friday in demand of a central law to protect doctors against violence. Over 350,000 doctors of IMA will participate in the protest, national president of the organisation Dr JA Jayalal told news agency ANI

All 1,700 branches are organizing events to mark the day of protest, IMA said. (PTI file photo)

"IMA is conducting a nationwide protest tomorrow in demand for a central law to protect doctors against violence. 3.5 lakh doctors of IMA will take part in the protest," ANI quoted the IMA president as saying.

The IMA informed organisations like the Association of Physicians of India, the Association of Surgeons of India, the Medical Students Network, Junior Doctor Network (JDN) will take part in the protest, beginning from 9am on Friday. The JDN and Resident Doctors Association (RDA) organised protests will take place in front of AIIMS and Delhi Medical Association at three places.

In Bihar and the central part of Kerala, doctors will close their clinics in the morning. Memorandums will be given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior ministers including home minister Amit Shah. All 1,700 branches are organizing events to mark the day of protest, the medical organization said.

"We demand government shall enhance security features in every hospital and declare hospitals as a protected zone," IMA said in a statement.

Pressing for the central act against violence on doctors with CrPC and IPC, the IMA said the proposed Health Services Personnel and Clinical Establishment (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill 2019, which seeks to punish people who assault doctors on duty and other healthcare professionals by imposing jail from upto 10 years, was at that time dismissed to home ministry stated special law cannot be created, as health is a state subject.

"Currently 21 states have their local laws, but what we need is a strong central law to protect doctors from violence - In one instance, 11 years have passed and a doctor in Nashik has died of head injury, but the person is still not caught, there was a change introduced in Epidemics Act due to Covid-19, but even then about 300 small instances of violence were reported in 2020 alone- Doctors are laying their lives on the line — 750 had died in 2020 and about 700 more have died during the second wave," IMA said in the statement.

Further, the association condemned the brutal attack on young doctor in Assam and assault on lady doctors, horrifying incidents in Hooghly in West Bengal and Karnataka.

Calling the Ramdev row unfortunate, IMA said many other branches have filed police complaints against him for malafide statements on vaccinations and allopathic modern medicines of coronavirus.

"We have urged the Honourable Prime Minister to take appropriate action against him. We respect Ayurveda as part of our culture and ancient science, but we never go out and criticize it. What happened was unfortunate. We have evidence that medicines such as Coronil doesn’t work," the statement read.