On National Doctor’s day that is celebrated on July 1 every year in India, we travel to Suryapet in Telangana state to meet Dr K Ranga Reddy. His small clinic is on the service road to Warrangal, opposite the new bus stand . Here, patients have already lined up, waiting for the doctor to arrive . When he does, silver-haired, 70-year-old Dr K Ranga Reddy arrives on foot from his home which is one kilometre away. He is Suryapet’s ₹20 doctor’ — because he charges only ₹20 as his consultation fee.
Dr Reddy’s assistant opens the clinic after he arrives. The clinic comprises two very sparsely furnished rooms, nothing fancy. Patients greet him with a namaste and start rattling out their complaints: body pains, fever, loose motions, dizziness ... the list goes on. Dr Reddy first attends to the one who needs urgent attention. A young man and a teenage girl. High fever and diarrhoea. They need to be put on IV fluids. After these two, he patiently listens to the others. He requests me to wait and only after he is done with consultations and meeting with medical representatives, does he settle down to tell his story.
Why does he charge ₹20 only? He explains that he used to charge ₹5, then increased it to ₹10 and gradually, his patients voluntarily started paying him ₹20.
