In India, Some Doctors Go on Hunger Strike to Protest Killing of Colleague

More than two dozen doctors in India have been on an indefinite hunger strike for nearly two weeks, one of many nationwide protests demanding a safer work environment set off by the rape and killing of a medical resident in August.

Six of those doctors have been subsisting only on water and been taken to the hospital for care, a doctors’ group formed after the episode said on Thursday. At least two of them were in critical condition.

The brutalized body of the female doctor was found on Aug. 9 in a seminar room at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, a state-run institution in Kolkata, where she was completing a residency. She had many injuries, including a broken neck, according to local news media reports. The name of the 31-year-old victim may not be published under Indian law because of privacy laws relating to sexual assaults.

The episode shocked India, where violence against women remains a scourge, and galvanized thousands of doctors who demanded a thorough investigation to bring the victim justice. They also sought better protection in government hospitals, where resident doctors often work grueling, multiday shifts.

An investigation by the state of West Bengal, of which Kolkata is the capital, has been taken over by a federal investigative agency. But there has been little progress in the inquiry, according to Dr. Sunanda Ghosh, a member of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, an organization formed after the killing in Kolkata.

The protests have taken on an urgency in recent weeks, with doctors around the country pointing to other systemic problems in government-run hospitals, including corruption.

“Our colleague was very vocal about corruption in the workplace,” Dr. Ghosh said. “We also want to know the