Rajasthan: Congress MLA bats for quacks in villages during pandemic

JAIPUR: Senior Congress MLA and former minister Bharat Singh Kundanpur gave a bizarre suggestion to the state health minister not to act against the quacks operating in villages as they are the immediate health providers to the villagers during pandemic.
Singh appealed to the minister to think of his suggestion and not to put additional burden on hospitals by stopping their services.
The MLA from Sangod in Kota said corona is spreading like wildfire in villages and the challenge is huge as resources are very limited. He pointed out that there are about 40,000 villages in the state and doctors could not reach everywhere. Where there is no access to doctors, quacks are main stay. Even now, a large section of the people believes in them.
On falling sick, people approach these ‘village doctors’ and get their treatment. The government from time to time had launched campaign against them and tried to stop them. He said the government may be right, but in our country ‘Jugaad' has got its own relevance.
He had also given his argument in favour of why people prefer quacks. They are easily accessible and the village folks have strong faith in them. They provide home services to patients. They have contact with the doctors in the cities and in time of need they help patients get medical help in cities as villagers are not aware of the doctors in the cities.
Dr Raman Sharma, senior professor at SMS hospital, said, “They could help the patient by way of measuring oxygen level and a patient with fever with a paracetamol, but Covid treatment should be done only by a trained doctor. Otherwise it will be detrimental to the health of the patient.”