Hyderabad, July 1 -- As India marked the 35th National Doctors Day on Wednesday, July 1, medical practitioners in Hyderabad used the occasion not to celebrate but to sound an alarm over their safety, their pay and their mental health.

National Doctors Day has been observed since 1991, on the birth anniversary of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, the physician and former West Bengal chief minister, after whom the day is named.

Three-and-a-half-decades later, doctors in the city say the profession they once aspired to is increasingly defined by exhaustion, unmet basic needs and violence at the hands of the very people they are trying to help.

Attacks born of impatience, not intent

Dr M Rajeev, Director of RX Hospital, Hyderabad, said assaults on d...