At a time India is grappling with black marketing, fake drugs and lack of resources to battle the Covid-19 crisis, a new malice has emerged in the villages of Malwa, Madhya Pradesh. The unqualified or underqualified doctors, practicing in the rural area of the region, are taking advantage of people who are scared of going to dedicated Covid-19 facilities in urban areas and treating them in farms or open fields.

Villagers, suffering from a cough or cold, fear that if they go to a proper medical facility they might be forced to be admitted to a Covid-19 ward. To avoid hospitalisation, the villagers instead go to local quacks, who lack proper medical training, equipment or even infrastructure.

During a crackdown, the authorities caught some quacks treating patients in farms. They were administering saline to patients by hanging the drips from trees.