The Momma Clan

On 9th August, a female student and junior doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital was raped brutally and consequently murdered.

The case has since then caused an upstir not only in West Bengal but all over India as well. The parents of the victim were forced to wait for three hours before they could even see their beloved daughter’s corpse. The hospital authority even dared to spread misinformation that the victim, namely Dr . Moumita Debnath , had committed suicide in the seminar hall of the campus after 12 o clock in the midnight. Her body was severely bruised, hinting at a brutal, animalistic, and beastly amount of torture.

Rape cases are quite frequently frequent in India. The 2012 Nirbhaya case, Hyderabad case, and Hathras cases are indeed testimony to the fact that women are still objectified to a great extent and are treated as a mere commodity, who needs to ” be corrected”, if she steps out of the house at night. This form of sexual violence against women is often referred to as correctorial rape.

In such scenarios, the perpetrator takes it upon himself to ” educate ” women who challenge social norms. For eg, according to one of the convicts of the Nirbhaya case, the woman was not supposed to be out late at night, and it seemed imperative to him to teach her social norms. Reverting back to the original case being talked about, the female doctor had most probably stumbled across a secretive racket being operated at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. News channels across the state are coming up with new pieces of evidence. Starting from leaked WhatsApp group chats to audio recordings, everything is clearly hinting at some secrets that are being concealed.

Regressive statements like “What was she doing at night ? ” and “She must have worn provocative clothes . ” are coming up to the very forefront again. It seems that slut-shaming victims of rape and harassment and victim blaming are still quite prominent. This is an element which has been very easily borrowed from the mythical repatoir .

The night march which took place yesterday all across the country is a meaningful step towards securing a safer future for women, and most importantly safe roads at night. The negligence portrayed by the government is testimony to the fact that the TMC government is at fault as well. Gratification of carnal desires via abuse, primarily sexual, is a crime that has been normalized way too far till date. So far, only Sanjay Ray has been accused of brutally raping the 31-year-old. The accused is not even a staff of the hospital, but rather a civil person helping the police with managing traffic as a job. Suspected, the intern doctors may have been the actual people involved in this sham of humanity being crude and harsh to a great extent. He is speculated to be a scapegoat, covering up for the higher authorities who were actually a part of the big picture.

Women’s safety at university campuses and workplaces are becoming a matter of debate currently. Additionally, the fact that the government is trying to hide the real truth for their own agenda is really disheartening. The way the dictatorship is still prominent to a great extent and another such incident took place yesterday itself as well is a clarion call to bring forth better reforms. A doctor on duty, being victim to a serious crime committed against women, at 4 am in the night is an insult to the upheld human rights and women’s rights during the regime of the previous government.

-Riddhima Sen