It has been stunning to witness how a case of horrific sexual violence — and that is what the RG Kar hospital atrocity is — has been cast as an issue of healthcare workers’ safety. Even in the hallowed portals of the Supreme Court. Let us be clear — this is a case of yet another woman being brutalised in what has seemingly become a norm in India. That it has happened in a hospital gives it another layer of egregiousness, if that were even possible, because certain locales are meant to be shelters for all. So, while it is a workplace safety issue due to the crime’s location, this is essentially a case of sexual violence. Had it happened in a school, corporate office or government ministry, this would still be a case of sexual violence at its core, and not about the security of teachers, executives or government functionaries.
Let us also recall that violence often comes from within. In the last six months alone, women (a dental student, a nurse and a doctor) were at the receiving end of assault, rape and molestation in Rohtak, Moradabad and Rishikesh respectively. This is surely the case in other professions too, and as lawyers who write this, we must unsparingly look at our own ecosystem. In the RG Kar atrocity, it is still far from clear that the perpetrator was a patient, visitor, or an “outsider."