The central government has once again reiterated that it would not be enacting separate legislation for prohibiting violence against doctors and healthcare professionals, according to an RTI reply.The government’s clear stand on the proposed law it had drafted in 2019 and then scrapped had come at a time when doctors and various medical associations, including the Indian Medical Association (IMA), have launched a nationwide campaign for a separate central protection law that protects them from violence.Kerala-based K V Babu in an RTI asked about the status of the draft legislation and also sought information on copies of all the communications between the Health and the Home Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) regarding the bill or amended bill between September 2, 2019, and August 17, 2024, and also ‘file notings.’In its reply, received Friday, the Union Health Ministry said, “A draft– The Healthcare Services Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2019 — was prepared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and circulated for consultations. After that, it was decided not to enact a separate legislation for prohibiting violence against doctors and other healthcare professionals.”The ministry also said the second and third information he sought was “exempted under the provisions of Section 8 (1) (a) of the RTI Act, 2005.”The RTI applicant Babu, who had sought the same information thrice before, said, “A central act for the protection of healthcare workers is a long-standing demand of the medical profession, and a draft central law was put in the public domain in September 2019. Even after five years, the central government has no intention to enact a central law even though the government was keen on a central law during the COVID pandemic in 2020 to avail the services of the medical community.”“It’s very disappointing that the government is not sensitive enough to address the concern of the medical community even after a series of protests against the continuing violence against doctors and healthcare workers across the nation,” said Babu. “This clearly shows the intention of the government that they are still not considering it even after protests by doctors.”He said this time, he had again filed the RTI as an IMA delegation had met Union Health Minister J P Nadda and other ministry officials to press for the central act and got a favourable response from the minister. “The RTI, however, clearly shows the government has no intention to bring the central law.”Babu filed the RTI on August 17 – the day the IMA had given a call for a nationwide 24-hour shutdown of non-essential services to protest the brutal rape and murder of a woman trainee doctor in a state-run hospital in Kolkata.The protest was also in solidarity with lakhs of resident and junior doctors, who shunned work and came out on the streets to protest the brutal incident of August 9.Though the resident doctors associations, including FAIMA and FORDA, called off the strike following SC order, they are still agitating for the central law, which they say, is the only way that could provide them protection in all the states as it will be binding on them.Speaking with , Dr R V Asokan, IMA National President, said that the government’s stand does not discourage them and will continue their struggle for a central law.He said they have submitted their justification for the law with the National Task Force (NTF), set up following the Supreme Court ruling, and plan to file an interlocutory application in the SC in the coming week.“We need a central act as it is binding on the state just like the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, 1940. A central act is mandatory, and we will continue to demand it until we get it,” he stressed.Dr Dhruv Chauhan, the national council coordinator of the Indian Medical Association-Junior Doctors Network (IMA-JDN), said the government’s reply to the Central Protection Act has not come as a shock to him.“This shows clearly how much the government cares about the healthcare system in this country, which is collapsing. The country is seeing an outrage over the safety and security of the doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers, and then this reply comes,” he told this paper.“Despite the NTF and doctors’ protests over the Kolkata brutal act, the attacks on the medical professionals are continuing daily. The doctors are losing hope day by day due to the gruesome attacks on them, and if the central act is not enacted, then it signals that the government doesn’t value the healthcare workers, who work selflessly for the people of this country” he said.
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