(Image source from: japantimes.co.jp)

The health ministry of India is planning to present a bill for law on violence against doctors, said media reports. The ministry is planning to direct the bill to the cabinet shortly as the draft is in its concluding stage of preparation.

The government’s move comes months after doctors staged a massive protest and held strikes across the country following attacks on doctors in a Kolkata hospital.

In the month of June, around 8 lakh doctors working in the different parts of the country went on work stoppage in the demand of amended working conditions after reports of repeated incidents of violence from patients’ families.

The strikes were a consequence to a brutal attack that took place on a junior doctor in Kolkata. A group of men attacked Paribaha Mukhopadhyay at NRS hospital when the doctor was walking down a corridor.

The men who attacked the doctor were identified as relatives of 75-year-old Mohammed Sayeed. However, the doctors attacked were not even treating the named patient. The hospital witnessed violence on a large scale, said witnesses.

Dr. Rajan Sharma, the president-elect of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), was quoted saying by The Guardian that, “The events in Kolkata were just a flashpoint. This has gone on for too long. We have a right to security as ordinary citizens. This violence against doctors is not acceptable in any civilized society.”

Earlier this year, a group of doctors had met minister Harsh Vardhan and demanded "safety and security" of doctors in the hospital premises. Marches were held in All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi campus under the banner of the Resident Doctors' Association.

By Sowmya Sangam