Rest in power Moumita Debnath

Trigger warning: sexual violence

On 9 August 2024, Moumita Debnath, a trainee doctor at R. G. Kar Medical College in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, was raped and murdered in a college building. This case has really shaken me. 

After a 30+ hour shift at the hospital, Moumita tried to catch some winks on site in a  student auditorium. The following day, her body was found dead, brutally gang raped, and murdered. Initially police covered it up as suicide, but as details emerged, it is an astounding case of brutality involving sex trafficking.

Many news outlets have chosen to cover the story without mentioning the actual acts of violence perpetrated on Moumita for their audience's sake. They are already prefacing the stories with trigger warnings, so why not tell the truth. We need to bear witness. Moumitas body was found with her upper half on a raised surface and her legs hanging off at an unnatural angle. She was covered with 113 bite marks, broken bones throughout her body, glass shards in her eyes, her legs were pulled so far apart that her pelvis was broken open and she contained enough semen to determine that over 17 men had ejaculated inside of her.

Just sit with that.

Doctors, healthcare workers, and the general population have been protesting, calling for justice. Doctors have gone on strike, canceling all elective surgeries. Public outcry has forced police to investigate the cover-up.

Moumitas parents were initially told she committed suicide. Their insistence on the autopsy report revealed the truth. We now know that Moumita was one of a long line of healthcare workers at that hospital who have died in suspicious circumstances. The one thing they all have in common is that they all began to suspect and attempt to expose sex trafficking occurring within the hospital setting. Clearly, an example was made of Moumita as to what would happen to women standing up for their integrity and safety. The many men involved in this murder have not been apprehended.

I asked a friend who is very up-to-date on international and political news if he had heard of this case and he had not. We need to spread this story around so that we bear witness to the sexual and gender based violence that occurs around the world. This is not just a problem in India. In our own backyards, there are women slain through male violence. It's so common. We can not just sigh and move on. Women are half the world, we can rise up and say no more! It will take organizing, courage, tenacity. 

Are you in?