Almost every day, we hear about violence on doctors
and health establishments from different parts of India. The violence
against doctors in India is often viscious, violent and mob directed,
and not infrequently claiming the life or limb of the doctor concerned
[1,2]. This violence not only physically harms the doctor but also
mentally and often socially jeopardize the career of the doctor.
Moreover, costly hospital instruments and furniture are often damaged,
vandalized or looted by the irate mob. Surprisingly many of these
violent instances are politically motivated; small time goons or
politicians take the advantage of patients and their relatives’ distress
and incite violence for financial or other ulterior motives.
Doctor, if they escape the violence of the patients’
relative or the murderous mob, they may have to face consumer – and
criminal courts. In West Bengal, they have to face another organization
that can take action considering every practice as a malpractice on the
basis of West Bengal Clinical Establishment bill of 2017.
In spite of all the laws against violence, both state
and central governments have been inefficient in bringing the
perpetrators of violence to justice. Normally justice in India is a slow
long and tedious process and that itself has been thought of one of the
reason for increasing violence against doctors [3]. Doctors often expect
that medical and professional organizations at least will stand up
against outrightly illegal and unlawful instances of violence. However
these organizations appear to be helpless and toothless.
No doctor in this world wants to harm his/her
patients, and whatever they do, most of them do it with best of the
intentions in their mind. Many times doctors in this country are working
under impossible circumstances. Whether we consider the violence as a
class war [4], or a consequence of rise of pseudointellectuals in the
society [5]
1. Anand T, Grover S, Kumar R, Kumar M, Ingle G.
Workplace violence against resident doctors in a tertiary care hospital
in Delhi. Natl Med J India. 2016;29: 344-7.
2. Pai S. Violence against doctors . Natl Med J
India. 2015;28:214-5.
3. Nagpal N. Incidents of violence against doctors in
India: can these be prevented? Natl Med J India. 2017;30:97-100.
4. Mishra S. Violence against doctors: The class
wars. Ind Heart J. 2015;67:289-92.
5. Mishra S. Our intellectuals have failed us – system of a Down.
Indian Heart J. 2017;69:133-5.
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