Supreme Court creates National Task Force for doctors safety

The Supreme Court of India today set up a National Task Force (NTF) of eminent persons to make recommendations on medical professionals workplace safety following the brutal rape and murder of a young doctor at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata on 9 August. The case has sparked a nationwide movement and outpouring of public anger demanding safety and justice for women, especially for female doctors in India.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, took up the case suo motu and passed the order, saying that the National Task Force was being established to frame guidelines for the safety and protection of medical workers across the country.

The Supreme Court directed the Task Force to submit an interim report within three weeks and a final report within two months.

“Protecting safety of doctors and women doctors is a matter of national interest and principle of equality. The nation cannot await [for] another rape for it to take some steps,” Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud (CJI) said.

“If women cannot go to a place of work and be safe, then we are denying them the basic conditions of equality,” the CJI added.

The court also asked the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) which is investigating the Kolkata doctor’s rape and murder case to submit an interim report on Thursday, 22 August on the status of its investigation thus far.

Additionally the CJI led Bench has ordered the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) and the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) to takeover security arrangements at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, after women doctors said they did not feel safe after the brutal crime and subsequent vandalisation of the facility by a mob of violent men.

Composition of National Task Force

The National Task Force will now give recommendations on the modalities to be followed nationally across India to ensure the safety of medical professionals.

The following are the members of the NTF:

1. Surgeon Vice Admiral Arti Sarin AVSM, VSM, Director General Medical Services (Navy).

2. Dr. D Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director, Asian Institute of Gastroenterology & AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad.

3. Dr. M Srinivas, Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences( AIIMS), Delhi.

4. Dr. Pratima Murthy, Director, NIMHANS, Bangalore.

5. Dr. Goverdhen Dutt Puri, Executive Director, AIIMS Jodhpur.

6. Dr. Saumitra Rawat, Chairperson, Institute of Surgical Gastroenterology & Member Board of Management, Gangaram Hospital, Delhi.

7. Prof. Anita Saxena, Vice Chancellor, Pandit DD Sharma Medical University, Rohtak

8. Dr. Pallavi Saple, Dean Grant Medical College Mumbai & Sir JJ Group of Hospitals, Mumbai

9. Dr. Padma Srivastav, former professor, Neurology Dept, AIIMS Delhi and currently serving as Chairperson of Neurology, Paras Health.

10. The following officers will be ex-officio members of the NTF : (a) The Cabinet Secretary to the Govt of India, (b) Home Secretary to the Govt of India, (c) Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, (d) Chairperson of the National Medical Commission and (e) the President of the National Board of Examination.

NTF Mandate

The mandate of the NTF shall be to make recommendations pertaining to safety, working conditions and well-being of the medical professionals in India.

The NTF can catergorise its action plans under two heads –

(1) preventing violence including gender-based violence against medical professionals

(2) providing an enforceable national protocol for dignified and safe working conditions for interns, residents, senior residents, doctors, nurses and all medical professionals.

The Supreme Court has clarified that the phrase ‘medical professionals’ includes doctors, students undergoing internship, residents doctors and senior resident doctors as well as nurses.

The NTF is entitled to make additional suggestions wherever appropriate and will also suggest the appropriate timelines by which the recommendations are to be implemented based on facilities in the hospitals across India.

In its process, the NTF is required to consult all stakeholders bearing in mind the urgency and gravity of the situation.

Immense Public Anger in India

Doctors and healthcare workers in have been holding protests, candlelight vigils and marches across the country and have also collectively refusing to see non-emergency patients in their demand for a swift investigation and death sentence to the accused person(s).

The Supreme Court in the hearing today, requested all doctors to return to work.

A West Bengal Police volunteer, who was tasked with helping police personnel and their families at the RG Kar Medical Hospital, Kolkata has been arrested and charged with the crime so far. But there is widespread belief that this was a case of gang-rape and murder, and the CBI is looking into the possibility of additional suspects and criminals involved.

Across the nation, doctors have been joined in protests by an enraged citizens, with thousands of women and men marching in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and cities across the country, demanding justice and better safety measures in hospitals.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the biggest private and voluntary association of doctors in India, with 400,000+ members, held a 24 hour nation-wide strike over the weekend and called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to personally intervene in this case and introduce more stringent protections, given that 60 percent of India’s doctors are women. The IMA has demanded for a central law to protect Indian doctors through the ordinance measure, on an immediate basis.

Meanwhile voices from civil society say the incident has shown how women in India continue to face sexual violence despite tougher laws introduced after the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi.

The Nirbhaya case had spurred the Indian Govt. to order harsher penalties for such heinous crimes and set up fast-track courts dedicated to rape cases, with the government introducing the death penalty for repeat offenders.

However, despite tougher legislation, sexual violence remains pervasive in India, with the National Crime Records Bureau data from 2022 showing that every 16 minutes an incident of rape takes place in the country.