The West Bengal unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) on Thursday (August 14, 2025) put its weight behind fresh ‘Reclaim the Night’ protests to be held across the State tonight (August 14, 2025) to mark one year since the R.G. Kar rape and murder.

“In this State, culprits behind most crimes, especially against women, are in cahoots with the government tasked with punishing them. Women’s rights, survival, safety, and employment are in question… So tonight, women across the State will take to the streets again to ‘Reclaim The Night’,” CPI(M)’s central committee member Minakshi Mukherjee said on Thursday.

Exactly a year back, thousands of people across the State took to the streets on the eve of Independence Day to take part in ‘Reclaim The Night’ protests, called by civil society groups for women to ‘reclaim’ public spaces after dark. This had followed the heinous rape and murder of a female on-duty doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH) in the wee hours of August 9 last year.  

“On August 14 last year, when thousands were protesting outside RGKMCH at night, I saw from our protest site that police personnel were fleeing from the hospital right when a mob entered the campus. The police returned after an hour, after the mob carefully destroyed, especially CCTV cameras and their digital storage,” Ms. Mukherjee alleged.

For context, during Reclaim The Night protests last year, violence had erupted at RGKMCH premises late in the night, when a large unidentified mob vandalised the emergency building of the hospital, damaging property, medical equipment, and furniture.

The CPI(M) leader claimed that despite their party providing visual evidence of the local miscreants who vandalised the hospital to aid their arrest, the police instead allegedly summoned and interrogated innocent protestors who were demonstrating peacefully. 

“Everyone was summoned, except the mob that vandalised the hospital, the culprits associated with the rape and murder, and those who engaged in evidence tampering, corruption and syndicates. They were spared,” Ms. Mukherjee said.

Citing the various recent crimes against women in the State, she added that the party will continue its movement against injustice, torture, and the government’s alleged cover-ups of injustice through its law enforcement. 

CPI(M) announces women’s welfare programmes

On Thursday, when the Mamata Banerjee government celebrated Kanyashree Day to promote the welfare scheme for school-going girls, Ms. Mukherjee also announced that CPI(M) will be introducing a slew of women and girl child empowerment programmes across districts to promote education, financial literacy, physical fitness and skill development among women.

“We will unite the women residents of every panchayat and ward and build Women’s Councils across the State. The work has already taken off. We aim to bridge economic and social gaps, spread health-related awareness, empower them mentally, provide legal aid, tutor school dropouts, and conduct self-defence and sports classes,” she said.