“THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF MY PATIENT will be my first consideration;
I WILL RESPECT the autonomy and dignity of my patient;
I WILL MAINTAIN the utmost respect for human life;”
-WMA DECLARATION OF GENEVA
In the current time if any medical practitioner agrees to the fact that they
have upheld the above lines of the World Medical Association than they should be
considered a hypocrite. While the world has been grasping with the exceeding death rates due to the pandemic the barbaric act of rape is yet to be stopped. It has been
little over seven months since the Nirbhaya case convicts were hanged to death, yet we continue to witness a surge in sexual violence. This proves a point about how
inhumane the conditions have become, at this point that not even the fear of death
itself is failing to prove as a deterrent on the mentality of the rapists.
While thousands of people widely celebrated the verdict passed by the apex
court, and newspaper headlines hailed the death sentences as a ‘landmark victory’,
political parties and leaders too jumped onto the celebratory bandwagon, the
important question of “what then was achieved through the death sentences of
the Nirbhaya case convicts?” has not yet been addressed. Pandora’s box of evils has been opened and humanity can no longer be assumed to exist in everyone. With each passing day, the news brings stories of the suffering of people in the country and the world. Some incidents, however, make us question the very definition of not just civility but humanity itself.
During the start of the pandemic a very peculiar case of a migrant worker who had
returned from Ludhiana to Gaya underwent an abortion and further went
through the brutality of being raped. Since it was suspected that she was suffering
from COVID-19 was kept in the isolation ward. It is alleged that a doctor attending to
her overnight outraged her modesty for two successive nights.
Further on 4th May a 34-year-old doctor was booked for allegedly sexually
assaulting a 44-year-old male patient of Covid-19 in the ICU ward of Wockhardt
hospital. This proves a point about how these ruthless acts take no particular
gender into consideration.Even though these incidents are deeply rooted and can
directly be blamed on the gross mentality of the perpetrators, they in fact also, try to
highlight the weak and degradable securitysystems that have been ever-so
present in our hospitals and how necessary it is to bring them under adequate scrutiny. While it has already been widely discussed in the media about the vulnerability of the COVID-19 patients in the hospitals they would still believe that isolation wards and ICUs stand the chance of being a safe space where patients have a hope to recover without fear. However, the current increase
in the incidents give us a reality check that brings to the fore that even the most basic sense of well-being that is safety is also denied to patients in India. Such patients experience high levels of discomfort and lack of control. Feelings of insecurity definitely grow as they are surrounded by staff in suits and it is difficult to tell who is The current law addressing this has been the Prevention of Workplace Sexual Harassment (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 20135 by which it is mandatory for all workplaces, to have in place policies and Internal Committees (ICs) to address workplace sexual harassment. The PoSH Act makes it clear that this law is applicable not only to staff but also to visitors at any workplace. Therefore, both hospital staff and visiting patients are protected under the law. In fact, according to section 2 of the PoSH Act, an “aggrieved person” could be anyone who alleges sexual harassment in relation to a workplace. This implies that ICs at hospitals which deal with sexual harassment complaints from their employees could also deal with complaints from patients. ‘But have they really helped the current
situation ?’ the answer to this remains negative.
Some believe that a capital punishment would serve as measure that would help in reducing the number of rapes. But the ongoing inhumane acts speak a different
story even after the hanging of the Nirbhaya case criminals. If there is a lesson
to be learned from the recent incidents of sexual abuse against COVID-19 patients, it is that the demand of death penalty flows from a flawed notion that it will deter
crimes against women. What we need is a shift in focus – to change mindsets rather
than enforce the death penalty for rapists. This change in mindset must start at home, the classroom, and in the workplace. For if we don’t, no matter how many convicts we hang in the times to come, the deeply rooted misogyny will continue to manifest in our society.
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