According to a correspondent of Hindustan Times, Ajit (self-made Vaidya operating a roadside tent clinic) remarked, "Two betel leaves, a small bottle of mustard oil, 10 grams of sweets.... are what you need to ‘cure’ homosexuality." Ajit further said that tense parents consult him every month about their children's homosexuality problem.
In today's world, traditional Indian medicine is also not immune to fraudulent activities such as false claims, untested remedies, and misinterpretation of traditional practice. Various business-minded Yog gurus making false claims, 'Dadi ma ke Desi Nuskae,' roadside tent clinics ('khandani dwakhanas') promoting medicinal products and magical potions for numerous disorders and many more such practices are quite common in this field of traditional medicine.
In rural areas of India, people usually receive treatment from non-practitioners. These non-practitioners happen to treat every ailment, like paralysis, gangrene, diabetes, jaundice, seizures, and many more. People are usually unaware of the dangers. Relying on such quacks further worsens their condition. In addition, following these non-practitioners usually makes them discontinue essential medicines and emergency care, which pose more danger to their life.
These unethical practices pose a danger to patients lives and also bring a bad name to Ayurveda and its principles. It is necessary to raise awareness and educate people about the dangers of quackery in traditional medicine.
According to the Charak Samhita, a text on Ayurveda, such non-practitioners (quacks) are like bird catchers who try to trap patients with their lack of knowledge about administering the therapy and its dosage. Patients who value their health should not take medicines from such pseudo-practitioners as (drug) can cause death. These quacks are known as 'Chadmachar Vaidya'.
The Quint conducted a sting operation in June 2016 on Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali clinics in Noida. The doctors (BAMS) working in Patanjali centers noted homosexuality as a mental disorder and even prescribed medicines for its cure. Further investigation revealed that there is no mention of homosexuality as a disease or mental illness in the Ayurveda texts, while Baba Ramdev and his doctors claimed to cure it.
In recent years, there have been reports of misleading marketing of Ayurvedic medicines in India.
In one case, the Supreme Court of India fined an Ayurveda doctor, Haryana-based Omprakash Vaid Gyantara, Rs 10,000 for claiming to have discovered a cure for the novel coronavirus in 2020.
In another case, Yoga guru Ramdev claimed to have produced a medicine called 'Coronil', a cure for COVID-19. He claimed that the drug manufactured by his company had shown 100% favorable results during trials. However, the licensing officer of the Uttarakhand Ayurveda department later revealed that the company had not disclosed that the medicine kit was for COVID-19 when it applied for a license. Ramdev was ordered to stop advertising the medicine as a cure for COVID-19 by The Ministry of AYUSH with no strict legal action.
Similarly, in Maharashtra, two private firms were booked for false claims of COVID-19 cure. A mattress manufacturing firm, Arihant Mattresses (13th March), and an Ayurvedic medicine company, Sheetal Ayurveda Bhandar ( 16th March), published an advertisement to cure COVID-19.
On 21st November 2023, a warning was issued to Patanjali Ayurveda for publishing false claims about the company's products and advertising against modern medicines. The Supreme Court of India warned Patanjali Ayurveda of a heavy fine of 1 crore for every false claim.
According to the Indian Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH), the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, prohibits the manufacture, sale, or distribution of any Ayurvedic, Siddha or Unani drug that bears any statement, design or device which makes any false claim for the drug, or which is false or misleading in any particular.
The Drugs and Magic Remedies Act (Objectionable Advertisement) 1954 (DMR 1954) prohibits claims related to the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of any diseases, disorder, or condition specified. In February 2020, the Union Health Ministry proposed amendments to the act, including the increase of diseases in the list for which misleading advertisements were to be prohibited.
However, recently the government omitted Rule 170 (Misleading Advertisement) from The Drugs and Magic Remedies Act to promote ease of doing business, thereby helping the AYUSH pharma industry and indirectly increasing more misleading claims.
In response, the Ayush ministry explained that it has strengthened its pharmacovigilance program, and it is actively working and reporting such misleading advertisements (reported 18,812 " objectionable advertisements" from 2018-2021)
I think Ayurveda is a powerful Pathy on which everything is sold in the market. Big companies label their products with Ayurvedic names, and innocent people buy them because they trust Ayurvedic science. The malpractices by different companies and the quacks together are defaming it.
Dr Ankita Gautam, BAMS, Ayurvedic Medical Officer (H.P)
Quackery in Ayurveda persists in many parts, especially in rural areas. Due to unawareness, most people consider quacks as their saviors. This unawareness usually results in situations where doctors are not respected in front of these quacks. They mislead people by saying that there are no side effects in Ayurveda, and a layman starts believing them. They also mislead people in the name of massage. For layman, panchakarma means massage, whereas it is just a pre-procedure in Ayurveda.
Dr Sandhya Somraji, BAMS, Andaman & Nicobar Island
Ayurveda practitioners should refrain from making claims. Traditional medicine practitioners should give more importance to evidence-based practice and further add credit to Ayurveda. The development and promotion of Ayurvedic drugs should follow the basic principles and practices.
Practitioners should raise awareness about pure Ayurveda practice. The AYUSH Ministry should make and implement strict laws and guidelines for practicing Ayurveda to save Ayurveda from quackery.
