India's medical system has ground to a halt as around one million doctors have walked off the job. They're demanding justice for a junior doctor who was raped and murdered at a government-run hospital.
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00:00We want justice!
00:02We want justice!
00:04We want justice!
00:06Protests are growing across India
00:08as thousands demand swift justice
00:10for a junior doctor who was raped and murdered
00:12nearly two weeks ago.
00:14They're calling for stronger security
00:16and more stringent laws
00:18to protect medical staff.
00:20We want justice!
00:22Medics have been on strike since the incident,
00:24saying the doctor's death
00:26highlights the vulnerability in hospitals
00:28across the country,
00:30where staff work with a lack of protection.
00:32Who knows if the hospital is safe?
00:34Anything can happen to you,
00:36so we need security.
00:38That's why we're here.
00:40We want justice!
00:42We want justice!
00:44Around 1 million doctors have now walked off the job,
00:46paralysing the medical system
00:48in a country with a population
00:50of 1.4 billion.
00:52The government has urged doctors
00:54to return to their duties
00:56in the public interest.
00:58But they say they will continue to protest
01:00until there is justice for the victim.
01:02The body of the 31-year-old
01:04training medic was discovered
01:06covered in blood and mutilated
01:08at a government-run hospital in Kolkata,
01:10an autopsy revealing
01:12she'd been raped before her murder.
01:14Indian authorities
01:16arrested and charged a volunteer
01:18police officer with the crime.
01:20But the family of the victim
01:22say they believe other people are involved.
01:24The case is now
01:26being transferred to federal investigators
01:28after state government officials
01:30were accused of destroying evidence
01:32and mishandling the investigation.
01:54But bringing justice
01:56to this family isn't expected
01:58to ease public anger,
02:00with the protest movement
02:02highlighting how women in India
02:04continue to suffer from violence.
02:06That's despite tougher laws
02:08being introduced in 2012
02:10following the gang rape
02:12and murder of a 23-year-old girl
02:14on a moving bus in Delhi.
02:16In 2012,
02:1825,000 rape victims
02:20were arrested
02:22In 2012, 25,000 rape cases
02:24were recorded.
02:26But since then, the annual number of cases
02:28has increased to over 30,000,
02:30while conviction rates
02:32are lower than 30%.
02:34Campaigners say not enough
02:36has been done to deter violence
02:38against women, and more systematic
02:40change is needed to stamp out the problem.
02:42Increasing the sentence,
02:44making it much more severe
02:46would not make much of a difference.
02:48Unless
02:50either we are doing the societal improvement
02:52in terms of we are actually making the changes.
02:54Mindset is changing.
02:56We are providing
02:58that kind of security which should be there.
03:02And that lack of judicial
03:04and societal change is prompting
03:06this national reckoning,
03:08with protesters vowing to stay on the streets
03:10until there is meaningful change,
03:12saying enough
03:14is enough.
03:16Dolphine Chen and Rosie Greninja
03:18for Taiwan Plus.