West UP: Quacks Sell Sex Cures, Politicians Cause Social Problems

All conceivable wall space has been taken up by the “wonder adverts” across western Uttar Pradesh.

“Sex rogi milein”, “Na-mard milein”, “Sex samasyyaon ke liye milein”, “Shukranoo badhayein”, “Swapna dosh bandh karein”, “Gupta rog ke liye milein”…

And on and on the loud, graffitied adverts on every wall space across western Uttar Pradesh – from Ghaziabad to Modinagar to Meerut to Muzaffarnagar to Kasganj to Agra and Mathura – entice the gullible of this thickly-populated region of India’s largest state that goes to the polls beginning 11 February.

With all conceivable wall space taken up by the “wonder adverts” across a region of the state nourished largely by sugarcane and wheat, it would appear that western UP’s men perennially suffer from low sex drive, impotency or other sexual ailments. None of the barrage of crude adverts, however, address problems that the region’s women might be faced with, keeping silent about them considering that this part of the state is largely male-dominated.

Every Doctor Has His Own Territory

So, while Dr Samrat and Dr Rakesh Agarwal compete for wall space in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, near Meerut, Hakim Rabbani and Hakim Lukhmani are kings in the villages of Saharanpur where they run dawakhanas, and Dr Dev and Dr Dipak proclaim themselves as experts in curing erectile dysfunction in Kasganj.

In Agra, Dr Taj features in a billboard which says: “Sex samasyayein? Jhijhke nahin. Sampark karein.” Dr Raj and Dr Azad’s adverts adorn the walls of Mathura. Clearly, these adverts have a common goal: to psychologically manipulate the self-image of individuals.

While the adverts’ objectives are primarily aimed at awakening the male testosterone, they reflect a darker truth: lack of access to education and proper healthcare systems, two crucial social sector parameters that define the progress a state has made on the development scale.

“There is certainly a market that sundry vaids and hakims and quacks tap in western UP. Otherwise why should these charlatans who play on the credulity of the easily deceived people spend money on wall graffiti and billboards?” asks Dr Sanjay Saxena who we met up with in Kasganj’s 98-year-old Mission Hospital.

Blame It On Illiteracy

Dr Saxena, who is a gynaecologist, attributes the so-called “sexual problems” that the adverts claim would be cured, to immotile sperm and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) among women. “Yeh sub agyanta ke kaaran se chal raha hai (All these are running because of low education levels),” Dr Saxena said, adding that the western UP belt is among the most backward in terms of access to education and health care in the state.

We found in our travels across western UP that the educated elites not only look down upon the quacks and their thriving practices, but on some occasions their otherwise grave demeanour gave way to grins or chuckles at the vaids’ and hakims’ “ingenuity”.

Most, however, described the adverts as signs of continuing decline in educational and health standards – two factors which catapulted UP to pole position among India’s bimaru states.

According to data culled from the Union government’s National Health Mission, UP’s literacy rate as per the 2011 Census is 69.72 percent as compared to the national average of 74.04 percent. Of this, the male literacy rate (79.24 percent) is higher than the figure for females (59.26 percent). In a state as large and variegated in terms of demography as UP, there are only 3,692 primary health centres (PHCs), although the required number is 5,172.

There is no data to indicate how many of these PHCs actually function, but anecdotal evidence and our travel across western UP suggested that most are non-operational. Compared to other states, Uttar Pradesh is in the unenviable position of having the highest birth and fertility rates.

Weak Public Health Infrastructure

The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) acknowledges that UP is among 18 states which have weak public health indicators or infrastructure and there is a “significant shortfall of doctors at PHCs”, which only corroborates our findings of a state that is also afflicted by grim educational standards and attainments.

State government data is candid about female literacy in UP being “dismal”. Besides, government records show that the other “distinguishing feature of UP’s education system is the persistence of high level of illiteracy in the younger age group. Within the younger age group, illiteracy was endemic in the rural areas.”

According to Dr Amit Pathak, a Meerut-based radiologist and an 1857 sepoy rebellion buff, “What more can you expect when the education system has been captured by unlettered?” Dr Pathak’s comment underscores the cavalier attitude of successive UP governments to strengthening primary education.

This is reflected in a 2014 comment of by the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s Bureau of Planning Monitoring and Statistics, which says that UP was among 17 states which did not furnish the number of pre-primary schools it had.

UP is at the bottom of the pile in terms of abysmal social development indicators such as medical facilities, teacher-pupil ratio in primary schools, birth rate, infant mortality rate, literacy and per capita income.

While UP has the country’s largest child population at 200 million, it has the lowest number of teachers per student, poorest transition rate from primary to upper primary school and, worst of all, the lowest learning outcomes.

“The condition of the people of UP is desperate. They are caught between predatory politicians and an uncaring and servile bureaucracy,” says Kushal Pal Singh, a former Intelligence Bureau director who hails from Meerut but is now based in Noida.