The World of Quacks: A Parallel Health Care System in Rural West Bengal

Abstract

Health as a matter of right is recognized throughout the world for its intrinsic value. India as a signatory to the Alma Ata Declaration is committed to provide ‘Health for All’ irrespective of any discrimination on the grounds of rich or poor and urban or rural. The National Health Policies are formed on the basis of this principle. But inequality of opportunities, the gross mismatch between the stated objectives and the resources available and the inability of the state to bring quality health care within the rich of all has increased the vulnerability of the people particularly the rural segment and led to the emergence of a new tier of physicians, running a parallel heath care system and playing a formidable role in the rural health care market as rural health providers. This group of self –styled practitioners called quacks, despite in expertise is doing a good business in the villages taking advantage of the lacunae in the public health care system. As testimony to their legitimacy, they manage certificates from unauthorized and unrecognized institutions. Against this backdrop the present write up attempts to highlight the mode of operation of quacks in the villages in West Bengal and also to explore the nature of functioning of institutions that create quacks