00:00Doctors in India have held a national strike, escalating the protest against the rape and
00:05murder of a female colleague in the West Bengal city of Kolkata.
00:10More than a million were expected to join the strikes, as hospitals and clinics across
00:15the country turned away non-emergency patients.
00:19The IMA described last week's killing as a crime of barbaric scale due to the lack
00:23of safe spaces for women and asked for the country's support in its
00:28struggle for justice.
00:30Protests against the attack and calling for the better protection of women have intensified
00:35in recent days after a mob vandalised the hospital where it happened.
00:40In a statement, the IMA said emergency and casualty services would continue to run.
00:46The strike ended at 6 o'clock local time on Sunday, 030 Greenwich Mean Time.
00:52The association's president, R. V. Ashokan, told the BBC doctors have been suffering and
00:58protesting against violence for years but that this incident was qualitatively different.
01:05If such a crime can happen in a medical college in a major city, it shows everywhere doctors
01:11are unsafe, he said.
01:14Doctors at some government hospitals announced earlier this week that they were indefinitely
01:18halting elective procedures.
01:21India protests intensify over doctors' rape and murder.
01:25Raped Indian do.
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