Fine on quacks too low, says health department

CHENNAI: The state health department and police may soon start booking quacks for attempt to murder.
The deliberation comes against the backdrop of the arrest of 21 quacks in Tiruvallur over the last one month after a viral fever outbreak in the district. Sources say 19 of them are now free, and some have even resumed practice, though more surreptitiously now. On Monday, police arrested two more quacks Devaraj S, a BSc graduate, and Prince Sabinus, a class 12 pass out from the district.
In the absence of an anti-quackery law in the state, fake practitioners, at present, can Rs 1,000.get away with a fine of` To prevent this, the legal wing of the state health department is poring over various legislations to ensure quacks are booked under more serious sections of the Indian Penal Code.
“ As of now, quacks are supposed to be booked for violation of sections of the Indian Medical Council Act, which prohibit non-medical people from practising medicine, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act if we find them doling out prescriptions. But most often they are booked only for cheating and impersonation,” said K Senguttuvan, director of medical and rural health services. Officials are also mulling over options to empanel all hospitals.
For more than a month now, quacks have been making a killing in Tiruvallur, literally. At least six of the eight children who died of viral and bacterial infections approached fake practitioners before they sought real help, but it was too late.
“It may not be unusual for people to have infectious diseases, but with the advancement we have in medical technology , no one should die because of diseases like dengue,” said director of public health K Kolandaswamy .
A Supreme Court ruling in 1996 defines anyone practising modern medicine without training in the discipline, even if they are trained in al ternative systems of medici ne such as ayurveda, as quacks. The Indian Medical Council Act of 1956 punishes this with up to a year in pri son and a fine of Rs1,000--a weak penalty , according to medical practitioners.
“What we need now is an anti-quackery law which has been longpending in the state,” said Dr R V S Surendran, who is part of the ethics committee in Tamil Nadu Medical Council.
“Just adding a provision won't do. We need a definite legislative act with adequate implementation, which can be overseen by the director of medical services,” he said.
The Tamil Nadu chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) estimates there are around 30,000 quacks in the state, most of them in rural areas. While the state health department toys with the idea of booking quacks for attempt to murder, legal experts are sceptical.
“If you book them for attempt to murder, you need to prove their intention was to kill, which can be really difficult,” said lawyer V Raghavachari, who deals with such cases.