Abantika Bhattacharya, a 40-year-old doctor, who set herself on fire roughly two weeks ago at her Behala home in Kolkata, passed away on Sunday night, August 29. The lady was rushed to a local nursing home as soon as her neighbours got to know about the incident. With 70% burn injuries, she was later shifted to SSKM Hospital.
Her last Facebook post on August 16 reads: “Where peace lies for me …. job resignation? After eight years of peripheral service … again dragged to another peripheral service… in the same job capacity… can’t take it anymore.”
Abantika was recently transferred to Diamond Harbour Medical College. Before this, she was posted to the Midnapore Medical College as an assistant professor. Abantika’s husband is a gynaecologist in Murshidabad, West Bengal. The couple has a daughter, who suffers from autism spectrum disorder.
Various Doctor associations, including the Association of Health Service Doctors and Service Doctors Forum, have criticized the authorities and have demanded a fair and transparent transfer policy of health service doctors after Abantika’s death.
Commenting on the incident, a senior health department official said, “There is no doubt that we need a more transparent transfer policy. It is unbelievable that a doctor would commit suicide because of transfer from one medical college to another.”
As per the reports, Abantika was suffering from depression after the death of her parents. Her father died in 2017. Her mother was unable to bear her husband’s loss and died by suicide two years ago.
Abantika graduated from Medical College and Hospital Kolkata and was a community medicine specialist. During the pandemic, Abantika was part of various COVID-19 campaigns.
Psychologist Amit Chakraborty said that Abantika was doing research on depression and stress and even published some research papers. It shows her concern for the issue and thus she was trying to find a way out.
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