Gandhinagar, (Samajweekly) A women activist forum, which demanded that a police complaint be filed by Monday midnight in the Jamnagar GG hospital sexual harassment incident, announced that it will stage protests against the police “inaction” from Tuesday.
A female attendant at the hospital had, on last Tuesday, alleged that they were under pressure from the hospital management to have physical relations with them in order to continue working there.
“It will be a week since Chief Minister Vijay Rupani ordered a probe in the sexual harassment allegations by an attendant in the Jamnagar’s GG hospital. Till now, we have not seen any concrete action in the case. And shockingly, the victims were cross-examined by the panel who was recording their statements, which is absolutely in violation of sexual harassment guidelines,” Shetalben Sheth, the founding member of the Mahila Nyay Manch formed recently in Jamnagar told the IANS.
“The female attendants then complained that to us and we went there and had their true, undistorted statements recorded. Besides that, we have 15 statements from the victim attendants, male attendants and others, in a notorised format in affidavits, which we have submitted to the Superintendent of Police, the ASP and sent copies to the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, and the Home Minister. Despite the victims’ clearly mentioning the culprit’s name, attempts were there to shield him. Still no FIR has been lodged,” she added.
Sheth, along with nine others, will be staging a ‘Dharna’ at the Lal Bungalow area, a prominent place in the city where most of the government offices are situated, from Tuesday.
“We had asked for the permission for the dharna, we were denied… However, I’ll be there tomorrow if complaint is not lodged by tonight,” she asserted.
A row erupted at the GG Hospital in Jamnagar when a female attendant made the allegations.
“We didn’t get wages and we’re being fired without any notice. The girls are under pressure to maintain physical relationships with managers and should they deny, they’re shown the door,” the female attendant had alleged in front of the media on Tuesday.
The hospital management however, denied any such complaints reaching them.
The hospital authorities had initially recruited 250 attendants before March and thereafter during Covid-19’s second wave, 570 more had been recruited.
These attendants were assigned to treat individuals by giving them food, water and assist the nursing staff when needed.
Rupani had announced a three member committee to investigate the alleged sexual harassment in GG hospital. He had on Wednesday instructed the Jamnagar District Collector and Health Commissioner, Jaiprakash Shivhare to form the committee, comprising the Assistant Collector, the Assistant Superintendent of Police and the Dean of the Dental College, Jamnagar.
