Alamgir Pasha looks on as his fourteen children play cricket in the sprawling lawns of his mansion which more or less resembles a medieval fort. Alamgir is happy with his two wives, fourteen children and one daughter-in-law. He lives in Mirpur near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Alamgir owns a rice mill and exports rice to different countries. He is 53 years old.
Alamgir wanted to celebrate Edd with all his family members. This year he had been successful in bringing all his sons together. Some of them had been studying in England for higher studies. Tears rolled down. It was tears of joy. As every member came to Alamgir for their “Eddi”, he was filled with pride. As he was doling out gifts and presents he felt a sharp pain on the back of his shoulder. Next Alamgir was in ICU at a local hospital. It was diagnosed as a cardiac arrest. He was unable to move his feet and arms. He was paralyzed. The local doctors suggested an operation. Alamgir’s family did not want to take the risk. They applied for a medical visa to India. As medical visas is open to residents of countries including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and China with a validity of one year they had no problems. Why the Alamgir family opted to treat him in India? India offers medical treatment at between half and one third of the cost of similar treatments in neighboring medical tourism countries such as Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
Alamgir family calculated only the cost and the language factor. Why? Singapore is two to three times more expensive than India. Thailand is eighty percent more expensive while Malaysia has just started from the running blocks. They had felt comfortable in India in their last trip as they spoke their own language and not English or Mandarin to express them but what lay for them is another story. The Alamgirs did not have the considerable amount of time researching the destination and its facilities on their own and had not shown a degree of initiative. They were left totally at the mercy of the hospitals and their touts. In countries like Thailand and Singapore the governments goes out of their way to attract medical travelers as it has now become a lucrative revenue earner.
India never thought medical tourism as an industry which can give you high revenue and a number of employment opportunities for a host of people connected peripherally with this business. Putting advertisements like “incredible India” and touts and law enforcers running after one’s wallet, with no proper place to relieve yourself, getting beaten up by a taxi driver in the mid way of your journey, rouges throwing you out from your legitimized train berths and on checking up with the flight schedules in the internet you end up sitting like a frog in the airport as your flight was long away reschedule --- the tourist in you pops out “incredibly”. So India was never serious in her attempts to recognize any unorganized sector as “industry”. Medical tourism is also suffering from the same official apathy, and continues to do so.
Medical tourism is related to three ministries--- Tourism Ministry; Foreign Ministry and the Health Ministry. The Tourism Ministry has no plans for its “Incredible India” market leave alone formulating any plans for this niche market. The Foreign Ministry after issuing visas to medical travelers is oblivious to other sectors. Though they are very particular that medical travelers cannot re-enter the country sixty days after one exit post operative or cure. This hinders any post operative care. But they sometimes issue visas to black listed dreaded international criminals. They have no time to think about themselves what to think about a person on a wheel chair. The Health Ministry has enough complexities to sort out like curbing the polio, H1N1 virus, distributing condoms, ORS packets, iodized salt packets, AIDS control, sterilization and also other medieval aged diseases like malaria, diphtheria, small pox which comes to India at regular intervals. Getting into the intricacies of attracting medical tourists doesn’t suit them. The credit for getting six lakhs patients to India and spending more than Rs.4,500/- cores in getting treated in India is purely because of private enterprise with a few corporate hospitals, pharmaceuticals companies, freelance agents all working in tandem to build a thriving ecosystem that educates, facilitates and ferries medical tourists from Africa, Europe and neighboring countries.
Alamgir Pasha got treated from Christian Medical College, Vellore (Tamil Nadu) and is now able to move around and carry on his business. Before leaving India he went to Ajmer Sharif (Rajasthan) to pray for his wellbeing and his family at the “Dargarh” of Kwaja Moinuddin Chisti.
Sitendu De is the author of this post.
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