Kolkata: On the 172nd birth anniversary of Dr Radha Gobinda Kar who founded the Calcutta School of Medicine in 1886, an institution later rechristened as RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in memory of the physician-philanthropist, his descendants felt “hopeless” at the “minimal progress achieved in state-run healthcare facilities” cradling young doctors.
Speaking to PTI, the fourth generation of RG Kar’s descendants, who live in the same house in the Ramrajatala area of Howrah where he was born on August 23, 1852, said they felt heartbroken to know little has improved in terms of providing security and facilities to budding doctors, a goal with which Kar had set up the facility amid major adversities 138 years ago.
The family felt it would be prudent to 'leave it to the conscience' of the agitating junior doctors who have struck work, albeit on “valid grounds”, and crippled public healthcare in West Bengal for two weeks now to decide whether or not it is time for them to return to work.
Members of the family also said that the state government is likely to have failed to instil confidence among the agitating doctors and pursue them to resume work despite the Supreme Court's appeal and repeated requests from the state health department to that effect.
“I feel quite hopeless at the dearth of facilities our doctors continue to have at the government hospitals even after nearly eight decades of our Independence. We have been hearing of such atrocities in the past and I am confident we will hear more such abominable crimes inside hospital premises in future as well. RG Kar wanted to produce quality doctors to take on the widespread diseases of his time. We have failed to honour his memory,” said Partha Kar, a photographer-teacher.
“I shudder to think what happened to the victim could also have happened to my daughter. Her eyes were oozing blood, not tears,” an exasperated Gargi, Partha’s wife added.
Expressing shock and anguish after the horrific crime at the hospital premises came to light, the 30-odd members of the Kar household who live in a joint-family set-up, had participated in the ‘Reclaim the Night’ protests on the Independence Day eve.
Stating that at least three members of the family are alumni of the RG Kar Medical College, Partha said he never heard students and interns complaining of such glaring lapses in their security.
“I find nothing wrong in the protests held by the junior doctors. The only facility they are demanding is their personal security. The hospital is their second home. They spend long durations in those premises for work. I leave it to their good conscience to decide what they should do next,” Partha said.
Radha Gobinda received his degree in medicine from Edinburgh in 1883 after pursuing studies at Calcutta Medical College. He returned to Calcutta three years later and immersed himself in treating poor patients of the country for free and, subsequently, committed to building a medical school to address the lack of native doctors at the time.
Kar pursued his dream to build a medical school with modern scientific knowledge with determination and doggedness which soon became his life goal.
He would even stand outside weddings of the rich in Calcutta to pitch his vision to the guests and request them to donate money for seed fund for a land parcel and construction of a hospital building.
That vision of building a healthcare facility without taking any support from the British Raj was achieved on October 18, 1886, when Kar, with assistance from leading Indian doctors of the time like Dr Mahendranath Banerjee, Dr Akshoy Kumar Dutta, Dr Bipin Behari Moitra, Dr ML De, Dr B G Banerjee, Dr Kunda Bhattacharya and numerous others, founded the Calcutta School of Medicine.
It was the first private medical college in Asia, established to ensure self-sufficiency in medical education and services.
The institution changed its name several times till on May 12, 1918, after the demise of Radha Gobinda Kar, it was finally renamed as RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
“Justice for the victim can come only when not only the perpetrators but also those responsible for altering evidence are appropriately punished,” Gargi said.
The Kar family member said her wish on RG Kar’s birth anniversary was better sense prevailed on the state government running hospital management.
“I believe the government has failed to instil confidence in the agitating doctors because it has not really tried to slip into their shoes and has instead relied on passing orders from the top. That attitude should change first,” she said.