This statement is from Dr.Toshima Karki’s post on X. Dr. Karki is a Medical Doctor, General Surgeon, Ex. Executive Member of Nepal Medical Council, Ex. State Minister for Health and the Member of Parliament of Nepal from Lalitpur District #3
The seriously brutal and heinous crime where a PG Resident Doctor Moumita Debnath was raped and murdered within the premises of a medical college in Kolkata, India on August 9, 2024 has devastated my mind, body and soul. Moumita Debnath was a 31-year-old second-year postgraduate student at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
The postmortem report stated that she bore 113 bite marks in her body, her hyoid bone fractured, her pelvis shattered, eyes bleeding punctured of her broken glasses and 150 m.l. of sperm found inside her body (a man can only have 10-15 m.l.) indicating a monstrous gang rape and multiple penetrations.
Almost every inch of her body was tortured to the level no human can ever imagine. And that also to a doctor who had just finished her 36 hrs hectic duty as was taking a brief nap in the hospital’s seminar hall ? Seriously? A hospital’s seminar hall?
This has murdered the doctor within me and frightened the woman inside me to her core. Does Humanity even exist? This crime is absolutely condemnable, no matter if it occurs in any part of the world.
A simple death sentence would be too merciful. I demand the perpetrators of this crime, experience the most excruciating pain and suffering for the rest of their lives, a punishment that mirrors the inhumanity and brutality they inflicted upon her, so that no one will ever dare to even think of committing such acts.
When a female doctor is not safe even within the hospital, then it is an alarm to the entire global society that no woman is safe anywhere.
Being a sitting Member of the Parliament of Nepal, a former Health State Minister of Nepal, former Executive Member of Nepal Medical Council, A General Surgeon and A Female Doctor myself, I express a deep shock and concern. I stand with the victims family in this unbearable pain and express my solidarity to all medical professionals demanding a safe working environment.
I appeal to all the Global Leaders, Health Organizations, Women’s rights’ advocates, Human Rights advocates and the entire Civic Society for an international discussion and a global mandate to ensure zero tolerance policy to any kind of violence, vandalism, harassment and abuse against healthcare workers. Every Health Care Centers must be announced safe zones assured of strict security provisions and 24/7 surveillance.
As medical professionals, we dedicate our lives to saving others and our workplaces themselves become sites of fear and danger. It is unacceptable !
This has created an alarming atmosphere of fear and insecurity among doctors and every woman. I repeat, If a female, even as a doctor is not safe within the hospital itself, no woman is safe anywhere !
The global community must realize the dire need and urgency to review and ensure safety to every woman, every female and every girl in the society and every workplace. Let’s Act.
