Student Protesters

Human Rights Defenders

Assam

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on March 12 regarding the brutal lathi-charge on peaceful student protesters by the Assam police. Since February 26, 2018, homeopathy students and doctors of Dispur Government Hospital have been staging a protest to draw the attention of the government regarding their longstanding demands related to employment opportunities for homeopathic doctors, quality education in homeopathic medical colleges of Assam, and the development of infrastructure.

The protest escalated when Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made a statement in the media on February 27, 2018, that the demands will be fulfilled when patients demand homeopathy treatment. He told the media that patients demand allopathic treatment, and not homeopathy.

This statement of the health minister aroused anger among doctors and medical practitioners. When police asked them to leave the venue on February 28, 2018, claiming that the protest period is over, the agitated students and doctors refused to leave. Suddenly, the police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse them and attacked them. Several students were injured and rushed to hospitals while others were detained at Basitha