INDIA: Services in scores of private and government hospitals across India were paralysed yesterday following a doctors' strike protesting against the government's controversial affirmative action proposal to reserve admissions in medical colleges on the basis of caste.
Thousands of patients, many of them with serious conditions, were either prematurely discharged or refused admittance into hospital as the anti-reservation protests gathered momentum and disrupted medical services in nearly 30 major Indian cities.
Many local administrations cancelled leave for all doctors and requisitioned help from railway and army medical services to cope with emergencies.
The capital, New Delhi, was the worst affected, with government resident doctors and those from the city's many private hospitals joining the mounting protests called by the Indian Medical Association.
Patients queued outside hospitals in the blistering sun, waiting in vain for medical attention.
"The doctors are playing with people's lives," said Amit Kumar, whose sister, suffering from a brain tumour, was refused admission.
"It's inhuman," Jasvir Singh said after doctors declined to admit his brother, who had consumed poison.
Others had similar tales to tell of not receiving medical attention despite hours of waiting in overflowing out-patient wards in the city's hospitals.
The protests, which began last month, intensified as the Congress Party-led federal government remained adamant about implementing its plan to increase quotas for lower-caste students from 22.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent in state-funded medical, engineering and other professional colleges.
According to the proposed policy, 49.5 per cent of India's lower castes from about 1,200 social groups - constituting about 60 per cent of India's population - would be guaranteed entry to educational institutions and subsequently employment. All they need is to prove their antecedents.