“We are scared now. Although we fully support the guardians who protested on Monday we are now scared that the hospital authorities might not treat our children well from now. What if anything happens to them?” said a guardian.

Apart from holding the hospital authorities responsible for their children’s death, the families also claimed that medical staff, especially the nurses, had misbehaved with them.

“Many patients admitted here come from villages and have trouble understanding the hospital authorities. While the doctors are patient with us, the nurses are rude and refuse to explain anything to us,” said a patient’s relative.

Nanda Thakur (name changed), a resident of Asansol, who has been living on the premises since a week, said, “A couple of days ago, in the afternoon I found the needle of the drip on my grandson had come out. I told a nurse about it but she refused to help saying she was not on duty. The other nurse I approached accused me of pulling out the needle. Finally, a doctor came in the evening and adjusted it.”

The relatives have many incidents to narrate where they were ill-treated by the nurses. According to Rabi Mondol (name changed) of Budge Budge, whose one-year son has been admitted for the past one week, he approached a nurse and told her that his son has defecated a dozen times. “She told me to call her after he had done it 15 times,” he added.

The relatives also claimed the nurses were never around during the visiting hours and often it was difficult to find out about the patient’s condition. “There are no nurses during these hours because they know that they will be inundated with questions by us,” said Rama Biswas, mother of one-and-half-year-old girl from Bakkhali.