Delhi in the grip of 40,000 quacks

EHM News Bureau - New Delhi

The death of a 15-year-old girl while undergoing an operation on her tongue in a private clinic at southwest Delhi has once again brought to fore the menace of quacks in the Capital. The operation was conducted by a quack masquerading as an MBBS to treat the girl’s stammering, which resulted in her death.

Though a case has been registered against the accused for causing death due to negligence, the incident has thrown light on the darker side of illegal private clinics running unmonitored in the Capital.

According to unofficial estimates, the number of quacks operating in Delhi is around 40,000. There’s no government rule to regularise such doctors with the Anti-quackery Bill in limbo. During former health minister Dr A K Walia’s tenure, the Anti-quackery Bill was being re-worked for intensifying the drive against ill-trained doctors. Now, the Delhi health minister Dr Yogananda Shatri, while expressing concern about the above mentioned incident says the Anti-quackery bill is under consideration.

As per the Delhi Medical Association, about 25,000 MBBS doctors are registered with the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) and another 4,000 ayurvedic practitioners are registered with the Bharatiya Chikitsa Parishad and there are 1,000 homeopaths registered with the Homeopathy Board.

In a recent survey conducted by the DMC, several fake doctors were identified and were asked to submit documents to support their qualification. If a medical practitioner is proved to be a quack in the court, he may be imprisoned for a maximum of three years and fined up to Rs 20,000.

The DMC initiated legal proceedings against 21 alleged quacks. According to a health ministry official, most of these illegally run clinics are in slums and rural areas where people don’t have enough money to pay fees of private doctors and government hospitals.

The medical fraternity blames the government’s lackadaisical attitude behind the mushrooming of quacks. Says Dr V Gupta, who is running a private clinic in east Delhi, “When DMC asked all doctors (even those who were registered with the MCI) to register again, it was done to identify the quacks, but nothing happened. Qualified doctors always end up abiding by the rules and the fake ones play the truant.”