Medical students and doctors take out a candlelight protest against the killing of a doctor in Kolkata (PTI file photo)

Even as doctors across the country protest for hospital safety, newcomers at several medical schools are being forced by seniors to memorize and read aloud booklets filled with vulgar abuse, praising sexual violence against women in general and against their classmates and nurses in particular. , in the name of ragging. These “disgusting” sessions and booklets are described by gender violence experts as preparation for rape culture.
The Hindi booklets titled “medical sahitya” or “personality development program” require beginners to memorize the contents and keep copies with them at all times. According to the first-year students, they are forced to read the booklet out loud and if they make mistakes or laugh, they have to start again. The booklet teaches freshmen to view women of all ages as sexual objects. For example, in the list of abbreviations there is one about little girls, BHMB- badi hokar maal banegi, the only extension of the list that can be printed, and a description of the different stages of breast development comparing them with fruits or vegetables, from the age group 0-15 years old. There are disrespectful references to corpses, even though medical students are supposed to learn to respect the corpse because it helps them understand the human body.

Every reference to women, including classmates, involves violent and forced sexual acts and description of genitals in the crudest terms possible, and nurses are routinely described as “being available” and ready, even willing , to being sexually assaulted by doctors.
“Gossip, especially of this kind, in medical schools speaks to an environment where the ability to feel or show empathy is diminished. This creates and enables a dangerous masculinity on campus that thrives on sexualization and dehumanization of the body. It’s rape culture,” said Jasmeen Patheja, founder of Blank Noise, which is working on a “Campus of Belonging” project as part of the “Mission I Never Ask For It” on college campuses. “We are working to end victim blaming. The danger of this kind of rant is that it normalizes sexism and enables sexual harassment. The dangers of this include the creation and celebration of unhealthy forms of masculinity in the medical field,” Patheja added.
“Joking about patients’ bodies while they are unconscious, often without clothes, on the operating table is one of the cheapest things I have seen male anesthesiologists and surgeons do. This kind of preparation produces doctors who would do such things. We need to be concerned about the dignity and safety of patients examined by these doctors,” a senior female doctor said about the brochure. “As students, we encountered male doctors asking young women to undress while they showed us a ‘breast exam’ touching them without consent and unnecessarily while they sat there mortified,” another doctor said.
It is clear from the testimonies of experienced doctors that some form of sexualized harassment is widespread. A report titled Psychosocial Study on Ragging in Selected Educational Institutions mandated by the Supreme Court and submitted in 2015 documents “widespread sexual harassment carried out in the name of ragging”. A subgroup appointed by the Committee commented on sexual forms of harassment and stated that such behavior is a manifestation of widespread sexual repression in our society. At many institutions, faculty and management privately support disgusting “traditions” and even dismiss sexual bashing as adolescent behavior.
“Teens exploring sexuality is a healthy culture. However, if it is a question of vulgarity, lack of respect towards women, absence of a feeling of dignity in the sexual relationship; and treating women as sexual objects and reducing their personality to their sexual organ, qualifies as ‘boys exploring sexuality,’ then we have a long way to go, especially if that is the culture of medical schools,” said Sunita Sheel Bandewar of the Medical Ethics Society Forum. “A portion of these students on medical school campuses would be sufficient to contribute to the violation of the safe environment in health care settings. It would not be an exaggeration to say that older people who engage in such crude practices could pose a threat to female colleagues in all spaces – fellow students, teachers, nurses, but also patients and members. of their family,” she added.