A year after the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital ignited unprecedented protests across Bengal, activists and stakeholders say the movement brought some visible change but left the core issue of women’s safety largely unresolved.
The incident, which horrified the state and drew national outrage, gave rise to mass movements like the ‘Reclaim the Night’ campaign led by social science researcher and activist Rimjhim Sinha that saw lakhs take to the streets demanding justice. Yet, Sinha believes the state’s promises, announced within hours of the first protests, never materialised beyond official statements. The government pledged the deployment of ‘Rattirer Sathi’ women volunteers for night safety, the creation of CCTV-monitored safe zones, and a mobile safety app for working women. But Sinha says none of these have been meaningfully implemented.
“I have never encountered a ‘Rattirer Sathi’ volunteer at night, nor do I know any woman who has,” she said, adding that the safety app is useless to poor working women who cannot afford smartphones. She criticised the government’s “pen-and-paper” approach and its failure to introduce gender sensitivity and sex education in schools measures she believes would address the root causes of gender-based violence.
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Sinha also dismissed the suggestion, made early on by the state, that working women should be spared night duty where possible. “It is a myth that women are primarily assaulted by strangers at night. Data shows most assaults occur in homes, often by known people,” she argued.
Yet, Sinha sees a silver lining. She believes the protests have emboldened women across the state to speak up for themselves. “I have seen pregnant women and mothers with infants joining protests overnight, schoolgirls blocking roads to demand repairs, and women refusing to wait for others to speak on their behalf. That’s progress,” she said.
The Junior Doctors Front, which led a 42-day strike in the wake of the incident, agrees that the protests yielded some victories, though justice remains incomplete. Spokesperson Aniket Mahata pointed out that while the main accused, Sanjoy Rai, is behind bars, they believe others were involved and await further action from the CBI. Still, the movement forced the removal or transfer of 11 senior officials from the health and police departments, including the now-jailed former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh and then Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal.
“Our protests also helped expose corruption and medical scams in the state. But measures to improve campus safety have already lost momentum. CCTV coverage and rest facilities are incomplete, and systems that initially worked well are now ignored,” Mahata said.
Political analyst Maidul Islam added that while the protests may not bring a regime change, they have deepened public disappointment with governance. “Patriarchy in Bengal remains intact, and sexual violence continues, as seen in the recent incident at South Calcutta Law College. The protests are significant, but they mostly resonate with the urban middle class,” he said.
A year on, the RG Kar protests stand as both a symbol of resistance and a sobering reminder that public outrage can shake power structures but may not always transform them especially when systemic issues run deep. The streets may have been reclaimed for a time, but the promise of lasting safety for women in Bengal still feels distant.
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