It’s been nine years since Mumbai’s KEM Hospital bid its last goodbye to former nurse Aruna Shanbaug (67), possibly their longest surviving inmate. Shanbaug had been in a vegetative state for about 42 years, and was cared for by her family of nurses at the hospital. The reason behind her condition — a brutal assault and rape by a ward boy in November 1973.

Fifty-one years on, healthcare professionals are on the streets demanding safe workplaces — after having lost one of their own, again. Even as they protest and seek a professional investigation and punishment for those involved in the brutal assault and rape that killed a young doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College, there are reports of violence against the medical fraternity coming out of other parts of the country. Clearly, not much has been learnt from Shanbaug’s trauma.

Anyone who has walked through the massive corridors and passages of the iconic hospital buildings, will be able to relate how lonely it can get as twilight sets in, and the crowds of patient-families and bustle of other staff dissolves into a sterile silence.

A second home of sorts

But for doctors, nurses and other staff on these premises, these are a second home of sorts. They spend much of their waking hours there. And hence the familiarity with these institutions, that they don’t find the need to look over their shoulders to see if danger lurks around the corner. Even in private hospitals, there are multiple floors and rooms, where healthcare staff work well through the wee hours of the day.

Doctors are asking for airport-type security at their workplaces and a Central Act, to punish those who indulge in violence against healthcare workers. Hospital administrators say measures have been put in place, including technology support, private security, CCTV and transport to drop staff at their homes after late shifts.

The Kolkata incident is seeing an outrage from civil society as well, in support of healthcare practitioners. And while that outrage translates into a law and action against those who committed the crime against the young Kolkata doctor, hopefully it will bring justice in other cases too, that do not find vociferous support from civil society or political circles. Like the recent report of a nurse in Uttarakhand, also said to be brutally assaulted and murdered. And possibly, also to the non-medical fraternity, like the young girl, allegedly brutally killed in Bihar.

It all comes down to building safe and sensitive communities. But till we get there, authorities need to use technology to ensure public safety and have quick response teams and helplines to prevent crime, besides a tough law for speedy punishment. It is our responsibility to nurse Shanbaug, to start with — to work towards, never again.

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