Some unscrupulous ones put a ‘Dr’ before their name. Others don’t,
but don’t like being called quacks or barefoot doctors either. They are
ok with “rural medical practitioners” and they know they plug a huge gap
in the health infrastructure in the country, an estimated 2.5 million
of them.
Now, the West Bengal government has decided to start training some 1,00,000 untrained persons in the rural reaches of the state. The first six-month course is to begin from January.
Trainees will not get any certificate, registration or money. But that they have been trained is expected to get more patients and more money.
An NGO in Birbhum was working with the untrained medical practitioners since 2007, training them in “what not to do” to patients. It was a nine month programme conducted by Liver Foundation headed by Dr Abhijit Chowdhury, a senior government doctor.
The Mamata Banerjee government asked an experts-team headed by an MIT economist Avijit V Banerjee to do a social impact assessment of the project. Once the survey gave the idea a thumbs up, health minister Mamata Banerjee gave the scheme the go ahead.
For the last few months, doctors, nurses and other experts have been drawing up a curriculum and teaching module.
