In protest of the brutal rape and the death of a doctor in the eastern city of Kolkata, Indian medical professionals started a 24-hour shutdown of non-emergency services across the country on Saturday ( Aug 17 ).
According to a statement from the Indian Medical Association ( IMA ), the shutdown, which started at 6am local time, will restrict access to elective medical procedures and out-patient consultations in the world’s most populous country.
Casualty agencies at institutions, which deal with situations, will continue to be staffed.
A 31-year-old apprentice doctor was sexually assaulted and murdered last year inside a medical school where she worked, causing widespread outcry from doctors and drawing similarities to the infamous gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old learner on a moving vehicle in New Delhi in 2012.
Physicians and women’s teams have been protesting against the loss of hard legislation to deter a rising flood of violence against women.
” Women make up the majority of our profession in this country. Time and again, we have asked for protection for them”, IMA president Car Asokan told Reuters on Friday.
More than a million doctors are anticipated to participate in the hit.  ,