Low price

Sitting on a wooden stool with a tin box displaying about ten bottles of coloured liquids, which they claim to be disinfectants, these quacks attract customers by charging a low price. Former barbers, most of them come from Bihar.

“We charge Rs 5 for cleaning an ear. For cleaning teeth we take Rs 10,” said 50-year-old Saukat Ali, who has been practising at the Esplanade bus terminus for the last 30 years.

He arrived in the city in the 1970s when the “Congress was in power” and stayed back in the Rajabazar area.

“We are preferred over physicians as we charge a nominal price,” said Babban Ali, also working at the Esplanade bus terminus for the last ten years. In any of the city clinics, an appointment with an ENT specialist costs about Rs 300.

No equipment

At least, 15 quacks can be spotted along the Esplanade bus terminus and the adjoining tram depot areas. All of them are natives of Darbhanga district in Bihar. Equipped with a single scalpel and a steel rod capped with cotton pads, these untrained ‘doctors’ provide service to about 70 people per day. The only disinfectant used by them is a violet-coloured liquid, which they claim is a solution of tincture iodine. The quacks use a mixture, called “hydrogen solution”, to create temporary numbness (read anaesthesia) in the patients.

There are no efforts to sterilise the scalpels or the sticks used for all and every individual, leaving the patient vulnerable to a host of infections. The scalpel is rarely washed. The only saving grace is that the cotton wad atop the stick is changed after each use.

“In Dalhousie, we receive about 70 customers on any working day. From police personnel to government employees, we serve them all with a smile. Some of our customers have remained loyal to us for more than 10 years,” said Yuni Miah, who practises in front of the Stephen House.

Customers say

“It is true that the scalpels are not sterilised. I know it is risky but it is much cheaper than an ENT specialist's treatment,” said Kumar Jha, a bus conductor, a weekly customer of Saukat Ali.

Though Jha is in all praise for these quacks, the experience of his colleague Satyanarayan Biswas, a WBSTC employee, is very different. “My left ear started bleeding after the scalpel was used and the cotton pad lodged inside my ear. It was my third visit to one of the quacks at Esplanade. I was trying to save money but ended up paying Rs 1,000,” said Biswas.