Police beat doctors as mobs leave Indian medics in fear

TWO doctors say they were attacked by police in Bhopal as angry mobs accuse health professionals of spreading coronavirus across India.

Dr Yuvraj Singh and Dr Rituparna were heading home from an emergency shift at AIIMS Hospital when they were stopped by policemen.

Dr Singh showed his ID card but the policemen began beating the pair with wooden sticks, throwing their belongings to the ground.

“This is what we get for putting our life at stake … [He] was yelling the doctors are only spreading corona, doctors shouldn’t be outside,” Dr Singh wrote on Facebook.

Last week, two doctors were injured in nearby Indore after a mob chased them and threw stones, accusing them of spreading Covid-19.

And on Wednesday, two female doctors in New Delhi who were shopping in a market were assaulted by a 42-yearold man who made similar accusations.

Several Indian hospitals were closed in April after a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) led to doctors catching the virus from patients. But fewer than 100 of India’s 5,865 cases are healthcare professionals.

Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, warned yesterday that strict action would be taken against those committing crimes against healthcare personnel.

But a nurse working in a public hospital in New Delhi told The Daily Telegraph the wave of attacks had left him disillusioned. “We are standing with people and risking our lives and we can’t meet our families, yet some degrade us,” he said. “We still can’t get the support of the people.”

Indian healthcare professionals also report being evicted from their homes or ostracised by their neighbours. While state governments promise to prosecute landlords, this has proved no deterrent.

Dr Sanjibani Panigrahi was returning home after a nine-hour shift in the western city of Surat when neighbours stopped her from entering the block.

“They told me, ‘We know you work in a hospital and you are on our hit list,” Dr Panigrahi said.

“How has it somehow become acceptable to harass, abuse and threaten doctors in our society?”

The Madhya Pradesh Police did not respond to a request for comment.

100 The number of healthcare professionals in India among the country’s reported total of 5,865 coronavirus cases