JUNIOR doctors have called off their agitation in West Bengal on the promise that the state government will hold talks with them on their demands, but right through the Durga Puja festivities they were on hunger strike. It was no small sacrifice which won the hearts of citizens who showed up, some with their families, to support them.
It was the brutal rape and murder on August 9 of a young junior doctor, on night shift at the government-run R.G. Kar Medical Hospital, that shocked her colleagues. The slow response of the government coupled with abysmal working conditions at the hospital compelled junior doctors to begin a movement demanding justice.