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Jammu Hospital Sets Up Panel Over Burqa Row
Confirmed
In Short: A protest by nursing interns over alleged restrictions on wearing burqas inside the labour room at Government Medical College and Hospital, Doda, prompted the hospital administration to set up a seven-member panel.
Trouble erupted on Wednesday when scores of nursing interns held a demonstration inside the hospital premises against Dr Madhu Chib, head of the gynaecology department, alleging that she had objected to their wearing of the burqa.
The hospital administration intervened and Dr Chib clarified that her objection to the burqa was confined to ensuring hygiene compliance in sensitive areas such as labour rooms and operation theatres.
The hospital management also set up a panel to look into the circumstances leading to the protest.
Dr Irfan Tassaduq, the in-charge medical superintendent of Doda GMC Hospital, confirmed the development and attributed the protest to a “miscommunication”.
The most visible agitation came from MBBS and BDS interns, whose strike disrupted services in hospitals across the Union territory and highlighted concerns over low stipends and working conditions.
The protesters boycotted work and gathered outside the hospital building.
The incident drew nationwide attention after students alleged that Professor Dr Madhu Chib “openly says she dislikes burqas” and has repeatedly asked burqa-clad interns to leave the labour room and even her office.
The students demanded an apology from the professor and said the treatment felt targeted, arguing that if hygiene was the concern, rules should apply uniformly to issues such as long nails rather than “singling out” burqas.
He told the students that raising religious slogans was not the right way to protest, as the venue was a hospital meant for everyone.
“Yeh Islamic hospital toh nahi hai, yeh hospital hai (This is not an Islamic hospital, is it),” he said, urging them to look at the issue through an objective lens.
What this adds
The commission will seek reports from the district police chief and hospital superintendent, while a three-member medical panel investigates the family's allegations over a needle left inside a newborn girl's body at Kottayam Medical College Hospital.
What's confirmed
- The protest was called off after the hospital administration intervened and Dr Chib clarified that her objection to the burqa was confined to ensuring hygiene compliance in sensitive areas such as labour rooms and operation theatres.
- A protest by nursing interns over alleged restrictions on wearing burqas inside the Gynae Department’s labour room at Government Medical College and Hospital, Doda, has prompted the hospital administration to set up a seven-member panel.
- Trouble erupted on Wednesday when scores of nursing interns held a demonstration inside the hospital premises against Dr Madhu Chib, head of the gynaecology department at Doda Medical College, alleging that she had objected to their wearing of the burqa.
- Protesters boycotted work and gathered outside the hospital building.
- The hospital management also set up a panel to look into the circumstances leading to the protest.
- Dr Irfan Tassaduq, the in-charge medical superintendent of Doda GMC Hospital, confirmed the development and attributed the protest to a “miscommunication”.
- Hospital guards found it and returned it to her the next afternoon.
- Islamabad, Pakistan – Staff nurse Razia Noreen was at a medicine cupboard on the nursery ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad’s largest public-sector hospital.
What's still developing
- Also read | Collector's Super 100: Two Kerala tribal girls secure MBBS and BDS medical admissions The family said the needle was detected near the child's right ribs during an examination at Kozhikode Medical College Hospital in July 2026.
- The commission will seek reports from the district police chief and hospital superintendent, while a three-member medical panel investigates the family's allegations.
- Kottayam: The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has registered a case over allegations that a needle was left inside the body of a newborn girl during treatment at Kottayam Medical College Hospital in 2025.
- The commission has decided to seek reports from the Kottayam District Police Superintendent and the hospital superintendent as part of its inquiry.
- Anju gave birth to the child at Kottayam Medical College Hospital on June 24, 2025.
- Nelda Sue Looper, 84, of Cookeville, passed away Thursday, June 12, at the Cookeville Regional Hospital in Cookeville.
- Allie D Lois Neely, 82, of Cookeville, passed away at Cookeville Regional Hospital in Cookeville Sunday, June 15.
- Sen. Johnson will be joined by patients, families, doctors, and nurses to discuss how hospitals failed to administer proper care and treatment to patients suffering from COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.
- Panelists will share firsthand accounts of mistreatment and other experiences they witnessed at hospitals across the country.
- This is the first event devoted entirely to what happened inside hospitals.
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