The junior doctors, under the banner of West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Forum (WBJDF), emphasized that including the verbal assurances in the official minutes of the meeting minutes would have been a “sign of good faith and commitment” from the government. Expressing disappointment that their demands were not included in the minutes of the meeting, the delegation said they would discuss with their colleagues.

The junior doctors have been protesting for over a month after a 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered at state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. “While we appreciate the government’s verbal commitments, we are hopeful for a written directive that formally acknowledges our demands. Until then, we will maintain our current course of action,” Debashish Haldar, a leading member of the junior doctors’ delegation said after coming out of Nabanna, the state secretariat, on Wednesday night.

After a marathon 6-hour-long meeting with the top officials of the West Bengal government, the junior doctors on Wednesday night said their cease work would continue as they received only “verbal assurances” on their demands.

The decision follows a college council meeting on Thursday (September 19, 2024) that reviewed the findings of an investigation by the institution’s Anti-Ragging Committee. These students would not be allowed on the hospital premises but can reportedly appear for examinations. The protesting doctors, apart from seeking justice in the rape-murder case, had also demanded an end to the “culture of threat, blackmail and intimidation” allegedly prevailing in medical colleges and healthcare institutions across West Bengal.

40 suspended At least 40 medical students and junior doctors were suspended for six months from the College of Medicine and JNM Hospital at Kalyani in West Bengal’s Nadia district on charges of threatening other students and doctors.

On Thursday night (September 19, 2024), the WBJDF announced that it was withdrawing the 10-day-long sit-in in front of Swasthya Bhawan at Salt Lake as the government had accepted most of their demands. 

Satabdi Das, feminist activist and convener of the ‘Reclaim The Night, Reclaim The Rights’ movement, said the torch rally was an attempt by multiple civil society groups to band together and collectively demand justice for the victim. “As WBJDF’s ceasework protest was bound to end one day, we, the civil society, must keep on maximising pressure to ensure a rapid trial and justice for the RG Kar victim,” she said.

The torch procession on Friday (September 20, 2024) was jointly called by several professional and civil society groups, including feminist organisations, the Bengal chapter of the Indian Medical Association, fan clubs of football teams, alumni associations of city schools, etc. The torch carried by protesters was relayed across multiple points from Hiland Park to Shyambazar. Satabdi Das, 

He said the WBJDF hoped that the support they received from common people, healthcare workers and civil society groups towards ensuring justice for the victim would continue as their movement progressed. Another protesting junior doctor, Debasish Halder, said the doctors would continue their sit-in across medical colleges. “We will also run free-of-cost ‘Abhaya Clinic’ medical camps for the people affected by floods in south Bengal, because that is our duty,” he said.

The State government should not see this [ending ceasework protest] as our weakness,” protesting junior doctor Aniket Mahato said at the rally on Friday (September 20, 2024). “We believe the State government’s directives will be implemented as was promised to us. We are resuming work in emergency services from Saturday (September 21, 2024) and continuing our Abhaya Clinic initiative.”