(EDITORIAL) The decision of the Government to subsidise Hakims and Vaidyas in rural districts attempts to extend medical relief to villagers who have, hitherto, been largely excluded from such benefits. It remains to be seen whether an annual aid of Rs.150 with a monthly subsidy of Rs.30 will prevent doctors from straying to urban centres in search of a living. Addressing the Science Conference, Dr. K.V. Krishnan had stressed the paucity of doctors in India, especially in relation to the countryside.

The ten Medical Schools in the country produced every year about 1,700 new doctors ... The need for at least 400,000 doctors for a population of 400 million cannot be gainsaid and Dr. Krishnan’s appeal for the introduction of the Leningrad system of training must carry weight. Russia which had 25,000 doctors in 1914 found the number greatly reduced by the end of the first world war. By 1940 she was able to turn out 120,000 doctors by a shift system of teaching at medical colleges….To attract doctors to villages seems none too easy and it would be necessary to discover men with a missionary zeal … Trained in the indigenous systems of medicine, the Hakims and Vaidyas could provide a closer touch with rural India and the new system of subsidies has much in its favour.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2019