Students in UK organise protests, submit memo in Kolkata rape-murder case

NEW DELHI: A UK-based Indian students' group organised a protest in Scotland and submitted a memorandum to the Indian mission in Edinburgh demanding urgent steps to address gender-based violence in the wake of the rape and murder case of a medic in Kolkata. The Students' Federation of India–United Kingdom (SFI-UK) held a peaceful demonstration outside India's Consulate in Edinburgh on Monday and a delegation submitted their memo to the Acting Consul General of India, strongly condemning the brutal rape and murder of the on-duty female doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

The group is planning further protests, including a gathering in Liverpool on Wednesday, to continue to highlight their demand for justice in a case that has sent shockwaves across India and among the diaspora. "Instead of actively working towards redressing the problem of gender violence and social injustice in the state of West Bengal, we are seeing the state machinery led by Mamata Banerjee indulge in theatrics and the targeting of protesting voices," said Nikhil Mathew, a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and one of the organisers of the protests as SFI-UK secretary. “The government has clearly failed to provide a safe space for working women in the state,” added Alakta Das, another PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and one of the organisers as SFI's Edinburgh Subcommittee Member.

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Demands for workplace safety

In their memo handed over to the Consulate General of India in Edinburgh, SFI-UK accused the state government of “severe laxity” in its response to the incident and demanded a "gender-just" workplace for all women. "This incident is a symptom of the rising violence against women and the negligence of the state towards its citizens. The absence of investment in public infrastructure and safety measures has a disproportionate impact on women, who are already marginalised by the patriarchal social conditions,” reads the memo.

It goes on to demand a thorough judicial inquiry into the incident and the implementation of adequate workplace security measures for all medical staff. “We stand in absolute solidarity with all those who are engaged in a determined and resolute struggle against gendered violence and social injustice steeped in power disparities, and demand immediate justice for the victim of the RG Kar Medical College & Hospital,” the memo concludes.

The group had issued an open letter over the weekend following a peaceful protest staged outside India House in London. A peaceful demonstration by British Indian women doctors is also planned at Parliament Square in London, near the Mahatma Gandhi statue, on Thursday. The 31-year-old junior doctor was raped and murdered while on duty and her body was discovered at the seminar hall in the hospital premises on August 9, with a civic volunteer arrested in connection with the attack the following day. It has triggered widespread doctors’ agitation and a CBI inquiry into the case is ongoing.