COVER gLoBAL ADvoCACy Adjusting the world W Canadian doctors spearhead birth of chiropractic in India B y M ari -L en D e G uzMan mAri-len De guzmAn is the editor of Canadian Chiropractor and Massage Therapy Canada magazines. You can contact her at [email protected]. 22 Canadian Chiropractor April 2014 www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photo: Indian Association of Chiropractic Doctors ith more than 1.2 billion people, India is one of the poorest and most heavily populated countries in the world. Physician ratio is one doctor for every 1,700 people. Nearly 22 per cent of the population or 269.3 million live below the poverty line, according to the Government of India Planning Commis-sion. Many people would view these statistics as a little discour-aging, but not so to a group of chiropractors thousands of miles away in Canada wanting to make a difference in a country that has been home to their ancestors. Dr. Jimmy Nanda, of Oakville, Ont., established the In-dian Association of Chiropractic Doctors (IACD) in 2001, while still a student of chiropractic at Life Chiropractic College West in Hayward, Calif. Although he was born and raised in Canada, Nanda’s family is originally from India. Growing up, his parents would take him to their homeland to visit relatives and friends. And as a student at Life West in the early 2000, he realized chiropractic was non-existent in India. “Knowing that one of the biggest countries in the world (did not have) chiropractic was what got me started in look-ing into why it’s not there,” Nanda recalls. “I was very disheartened in a sense that there is so much suffering in India with the labour class. There is no option there other than surgery, really, to do anything.” His opportunity came when he visited India with his family in 2000. When people learned that he was studying to be a chiropractor, they wanted to talk to him and tell him about their back and neck pain problems. Some of them, Nanda recalls, had low back disc problem and were told by Chiropractors and volunteers pose for a photo during the Sant Nirankari Mission in November 2013, where more than 5,500 people received free chiropractic care. their doctors to have back surgery. “As you know, that is ridiculous,” he says. “But because of the monetary gain for a doctor there, it makes more sense for them to do surgery than to do anything alternative.” It was during the same visit that he was approached by India’s sports minister upon learning that he was a chiro-practic student. Nanda’s family in India is well connected in politics and government. He asked Nanda to help assist in getting chiropractic care for the national cricket team, and introduce chiropractic at least in the sports level. This started the ball rolling in establishing an Indian chiropractic association, the IACD, which had ultimately one main purpose: to bring chiropractic to India. Working with the Indian government and other appropri-ate groups was not the most difficult part of starting the initiative, Nanda says, it was convincing practitioners – many of whom are trained and live in the West – to “take up the cause.” That was in the early 2000. Today, Nanda says, India is home to eight chiropractic clinics, thanks to numerous ef-forts spearheaded by the IACD and dedicated doctors who
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