THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ayurveda doctors, under the Ayurveda Medical Association of India (AMAI), will observe ‘Anti Quack Day’ on September 26 against self-proclaimed practitioners of the traditional medicine stream who do not possess the qualifications. As part of the event, the doctors will stage a protest at the Collectorates, AMAI general secretary Dr Rejith Anand said. Stating fake practitioners were cheating people in the name of traditional medicine, he said the association has demanded the formation of Anti-Quackery Cells under District Collectors. DMOs of Indian System of Medicines, District Police Chief, District panchayat president and representatives of Ayurveda organisations should be part of such cells, he said.
Another demand of the association is creating a help line for collecting details of fake practitioners. As the local bodies are authorised to give licence to Ayurveda centres, AMAI demanded the permits should be allotted after making sure such centres have qualified doctors.Moreover, Rejith said names of Ayurveda doctors and practitioners should be published on the website of the medical council. Steps should be taken to ban medical camps held by these practitioners. He said the media should restrict giving advertisements of these fraud practitioners.
Noting there was no centre in the state where Ayurveda is taught in the traditional way, he said all the traditional practitioners were given B class registration and protected after the Travancore-Cochin Medical Practitioners Act came into force. “As there are no centres in the state where Ayurveda is taught, it is quite astonishing from where these fake practitioners are coming,” he said.