Kolkata's women pour out in thousands to 'reclaim the night' as anger mounts in medic's rape-murder

Kolkata: When Rimjhim Sinha posted on Facebook an appeal for women of Jadavpur in Kolkata to gather at a local bus depot on Wednesday-Thursday night to protest the rape and murder of a young physician at a hospital in the city, she had no idea that it would turn into a mass movement.

Meyera, Raat Dakhal Karo (Girls, Reclaim the Night)”, Sinha posted on Facebook on August 10 – a day after the body of the postgraduate trainee doctor was found in the Seminar Room of the Department of Chest Medicine on the fourth floor of the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. What prompted the young social science researcher to call for the midnight protest was a statement by the principal of the medical college, Sandip Ghosh, who purportedly questioned why the young physician had gone to the seminar room alone during the night.

Her call over the past few days received widespread responses, not only across West Bengal but also in Delhi and Bengaluru, with women deciding to assert at the stroke of the Independence Day midnight their right to safely move around.

People gather at Jadavpur at mid-night on the eve of Independence Day to protest against the rape and killing of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College, in Kolkata.

The women started gathering in multiple places in Kolkata and other cities of West Bengal from Wednesday evening, demanding justice for the deceased doctor and asking the government to ensure adequate security to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.

A civic volunteer – a contractual employee of the Kolkata Police – was already arrested by the police for raping and murdering the young doctor. The Central Bureau of Investigation has taken over the probe on Wednesday. But the outrage over the incident did not simmer down.

Sinha and other organisers of the 'Reclaim the Night' protest insisted that the movement should remain apolitical, urging all to come without flags of any political parties.

The leaders and workers of the CPI (M), Congress, and BJP responded to the call. Even the ruling Trinamool Congress was not left behind. The TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, posted on X that he decided to join the protest because he, himself, had a daughter and a granddaughter and he wanted to do his bit to stop cruelty against women.

Several other TMC leaders also responded to the call. A large number of police personnel had been deployed, but the state government had clearly instructed the cops not to stop the women from protesting, but to ensure their security. Several intellectuals, film and theatre personalities and cultural activists also responded to the call, turning it into a mass protest.

Sinha, an alumnus of the Presidency University, was of course inspired by the ‘Reclaim the Night’ movement, which had started in Leeds in 1977 and had over the years spread across the United Kingdom with the demand for an enabling security environment for women to move in public spaces without any fear. Even after the gangrape and the murder of Nirbhaya in Delhi in 2012 and the molestation of women on New Year’s Eve in Bengaluru in 2017, some agitators had protested with the Reclaim the Night banners.