Not unexpectedly, though, the proposal has received mixed reactions. While doctors of the civil hospital and the Surat Municipal Corporation have given Navsarjan, the NGO concerned, the go-ahead, many medical professionals have opposed the idea violently.

Navsarjan director Father Vincent, however, says that the doctors critical of the project could have a vested interest in opposing it. ``Uncertified `practitioners' can certainly help us spread awareness about AIDS, HIV, STDs in the slums because they already have some credibility among slum-dwellers'', he argues.

Under the project, which started in 1998 with funds from a British agency, Navsarjan health workers disseminate knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases in 18 slums of the city. It is in these very slums that patronise the quacks in search of low-cost healthcare; it is these quacks that the NGO is now seeking to tap. Deputy Commissioner (Health and Hospitals) Dr I C Patel says he has no objection to the plan of using quacks as counsellors so long as ``they work with the NGOs already active in the slums''. Incidentally, the SMC is a collaborator in the Navsarjan project.

Government doctor Pushpa Gupta, too, feels that quacks can be very helpful in spreading the good word among slum-dwellers if properly trained and educated. Dr Mukul Choksi, a private practitioner, however, does not hesitate to criticise the plan. ``It'll be disastrous'', he says. ``They hardly know anything.''

As an afterthought, he adds that if quacks have to be roped into the project, ``they should be first given exhaustive training and a lengthy orientation course. If, after that, they are found to be up to the mark, their services can be utilised.''

However, both Dr Patel and Fr Vincent say the quacks themselves will not be treating the patients. ``Their brief will be identify HIV/AIDS and STD cases and refer them to SMC-run hospitals or the Civil Hospital'', they say. ``The civil hospital doctors have already agreed to train them.''

Navsarjan workers have already identified 18 quacks who can participate in the project; one Ajit Pradhan has expressed his willingness to work for it too, while a couple of others have applied to work as counsellors on their own.

``They will be our contact men, since they are in regular touch with slum-dwellers and migrant populations'', says Fr Vincent. ``That is our target group.''

So far as the question of remuneration goes, the Navsarjan director admits to not giving it much thought. ``But most probably, we will not be paying them, as they stand to benefit from their association with us'', Fr Vincent says.