The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) has demanded that assaults on doctors be treated as non-bailable offence and that the Centre brings in a law for the medical fraternity amid rising incident s of violence at a time when they are in the frontline of the fight against Covid-19.
Doctors and nurses, particularly those involved in Covid-19 care have been at the receiving end of harassment from landlords and fellow residents in different parts of the country amid fears that they could transmit coronavirus.
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In a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday, the FORDA cited multiple incidents of assault on doctors and called for a Central Protection Act for doctors.
It cited a case in Delhi’s Gautam Nagar area where it said a female resident doctor and her sister were abused and manhandled by a person in their residential colony and another incident in from AIIMS, Bhopal where two doctors were abused and assaulted by police personnel even after showing their ID cards when they were returning to their apartments after emergency duty.
“These are not isolated incidents, rather part of the long chain of incidents of violence against doctors. FORDA condemns such inhumane acts of violence and demands that all such acts be marked as Non-bailable Offence. Central Protection Act for doctors, as demanded earlier, is the need of the hour for protection of the whole medical fraternity,” it said in the letter.
{{/usCountry}}“These are not isolated incidents, rather part of the long chain of incidents of violence against doctors. FORDA condemns such inhumane acts of violence and demands that all such acts be marked as Non-bailable Offence. Central Protection Act for doctors, as demanded earlier, is the need of the hour for protection of the whole medical fraternity,” it said in the letter.
{{/usCountry}}Last month, in a television address to his constituency of Varanasi about the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned people against misbehaving with doctors and nurses amid reports that many healthcare professionals are facing harassment for caring for Covid-19 patients.
Modi’s warning came a day after the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) of Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) wrote to Shah about discrimination and unfair behaviour by landlords who allegedly asked doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers involved in Covid-19 care to vacate their rented homes.
Shah had then spoken to Delhi Police chief S N Shrivastava and directed him to ensure security of doctors.