Medical professionals and students participate in a silent march as they condemn the rape and murder of a doctor, in Kolkata on August 15, 2024.
The Indian Medical Association, the largest association of modern medicine doctors in India, has called for the suspension of non-emergency medical services for 24 hours across the country after a female trainee doctor was raped and murdered last week at a hospital.
The association, with about 350,000 members, declared that the "nationwide withdrawal of services by doctors of modern medicine" would begin at 6 a.m. local time on Saturday and end 6 a.m. the next day.
"All essential services will be maintained," the group wrote in a statement. "Routine OPDs will not function and elective surgeries will not be conducted."
Protests have broken out across India this week, with hundreds of thousands of medical professionals and activists taking to the streets calling for better health care worker protections following the incident that occurred in the eastern city of Kolkata, the capital of India's West Bengal state.
The IMA alleged that police and authorities had handled the murder and rape case "shabbily."
