Ward of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital after being vandalized by unidentified miscreants in Kolkata at the beginning of August 15, 2024. Photo Credit: PTI
ANDSa woman reporter, I have always found that it is worrying to cover crimes against women. The challenge is not only to report the story, but also to prevent personal feelings. Reporters also cannot afford to keep their guard down, especially when covering protests. Hundreds of people connect on such protests to express solidarity with the cause. However, some of them also come up with the agenda.
In less than a year, I found that I caught at least two violent situations while covering two separate cases of sexual assault. Last year, when India celebrated 78. Independence Day, Kolkata winded from terrible rape and murder of a 31 -year -old doctor inside RG Kar Medical College and hospital. Like my colleagues and peers, I spent a lot of time on the road by covering the “regeneration of night” marches that people protest against sexual violence.
One night I entered the RG Kar Hospital and stood in front of the stage and waited for one of the marches. The premises were strongly barricated and the police staff was placed on all the entrances. The space felt safe – until it was. A few minutes after midnight I started to hear loud shouts. It was clear that something had happened; They were not protest slogans.
Suddenly, the gates of the hospital broke more than 100 men, some under the influence of alcohol. They overthrew the barricades and went to rage. When they plunged stones and held on protesting, frightened workers, doctors and nurses, the cover ran. The police fled and offered little or no help. Many police workers were injured. Later they told the media that they were not ready to handle the crowd.
Panic is rising, I crashed through the university campus, knocked on every door and begged for shelter. All I wanted to do was to hide from the violent crowd. Most students said they couldn’t trust me enough to leave me in. They were suspected of me and I couldn’t blame them. The situation was already violent and the chances were stacked against them. Finally, one kind man took mercy and urged his peers to leave me to the seminar. I joined a group of people who were curved inside. In a desperate attempt to maintain the crowd, we stacked wooden boards and tables against the entrance. I waited with them for hours and watched my phone in horror because the battery threatened to die. Every time there was a bang on the door, we fell in fear. The crowd was heard to abuse people outside. They tried to best find people that are hiding inside the campus. In the end we left and went out, relieved.
In June this year I covered another protest march before South Calcutta Law College. There was hardly any activity for almost three hours. So, as human nature would have, I left my guard. But that was calm before the storm.
The situation escalated again in seconds. A group of political workers who allegedly came to protest the lack of women’s security began to abuse students who were upset about the same problem. The gender abuse was burned on us and beat everyone who came in their way, including women. I grabbed the thread wings and ran with other journalists. We were looking for a cover and found a tea room. This time the police were not visible.
While they report protests against violence, reporters do not expect to be caught in violence. Both of these protests were in the heart of the city, but I finally felt endangered. I wondered if I felt in the crowd in this way, how frightened and uncertain women had to feel when traveling alone at night? The experience left me shaken and I realized I would always have to watch my back. Journalists have to constantly look for a way out of such situations, save themselves and tell a story.
SHRABANA.Chatterje@thehind.co.in
Published – July 11, 2025 12:56 PM IS
