Local support buoys doctors’ stir, traders offer food, use of facilities during night sit-in
Times of India | 4 September 2024
12 Kolkata: Local residents, traders and business owners in the BB Ganguly Street belt extended their support to protesting junior doctors on Monday and Tuesday, trying to make their life a little less uncomfortable on the street. Their actions reflected the public mood about the ongoing protests.
The decision to undertake a sit-in after the march to Lalbazar was stopped on Monday evening was an impromptu one but around 1,000 junior doctors, many of them female, had stayed back.As the night wore on, there were challenges, including the need for washrooms that the protesters could access.
With no public toilet in the vicinity, a Mughlai restaurant owner, Md Aamir Bakhtiayar Baig, kept his shop open until 5 am on Tuesday to allow protesters to use the toilets. “It was very difficult for female protesters on the street to find a proper washroom in our locality. I allowed them to use the toilet till the water in the tank was exhausted around dawn,” said Baig. Around 550 female protesters used the restaurant’s toilets.
A residential building opposite Bowbazar post office opened its main gate and common toilets for male protesters throughout the night. Gambhir Lal Yadav, the gatekeeper, said, “Around 12.30 am, the building owner asked me to keep the gate open, the passage light on and allow the protesters to use the toilet.”
Local residents, including a roadside tea stall owner, provided free breakfast and drinking water to the protesters in the morning. Debu Mondal, who has been running the tea stall for 12 years, expressed his pride in witnessing doctors consuming sandwiches made by him.
Mayukh Saha, a final year PGT from Medical College, was surprised and motivated by the support from the locals. Local women also provided sanitary napkins, toilet wipes, tissue papers and soaps for the female protesters.
Debjit Banerjee, a decorator from Sealdah, covered a part of the street with large tarpaulins to create temporary shelters for the protesters from rain and the afternoon heat, waiving his charges for the service.
The support for the protesters extended beyond the local community, with people from different parts of Kolkata, particularly women, distributing food and snack packets throughout the day. Bidisha Chakraborty, a theatre artist from Bijoygarh, said, “It is no more an issue of doctors’ protest or fulfilling their demands. It is our fight too,” she said.