these scholars to become chiropractors and return home to practice in India, Kelly says. The IACD will coordinate the scholarship grants, he adds. “With eight chiropractors for a vast population of over 1.3 billion people, the first step is to increase the num-ber of DCs practicing. This is one way we can assist this.” In addition, Life West has also offered an athletic scholarship to a player in the Delhi Hurricanes Rugby Club to study at Life West and play for the college’s newly formed Gladiators Rugby club, according to the school’s president. End game All the efforts by the IACD and its supporters have an end goal of institutionalizing chiropractic and the chiro-practic profession in India through legislation — and eventually be able to estab-lish chiropractic colleges across the country. At the moment, the IACD is acting as the governing body for the profession in India. However, the associ-ation is actively working to-wards getting the govern-ment to enact a legislation regulating the chiropractic profession. Nanda admits they have a long way to go before they can finally see a piece of law passed. A big focus for the IACD at the moment is to continue to raise awareness about the developments in India, encourage more for-eign-trained chiropractors to practice and volunteer in India and, through scholar-ship programs like the one offered by Life West, send deserving Indian students to chiropractic schools. “The reason the www.canadianchiropractor.ca legislation is not done yet is because (the government) needs more numbers,” Nanda says. “They are very cooperative of the entire thing; they just need the numbers.” Kelly of Life West sup-ports the development of more chiropractic colleges or programs in India and other parts of the world where chiropractic has not yet flourished. He says it is very impor-tant to bring the benefits of chiropractic to poorer com-munities around the world. “Access to chiropractic care is largely a middle class segment for most popula-tions,” says Kelly. “This needs to change whether it is in Canada, the U.S.A. or any other coun-try.” Nanda is optimistic the IACD vision will be fulfilled and chiropractic will flour-ish in India. For now, he and other IACD volunteers are forging ahead, sacrificing time and money, and rack-ing up frequent flyer miles travelling to and from India, all for the common goal of bringing chiropractic to the Indian people. It’s not always easy, says Nanda, considering that time and money spent pur-suing this advocacy are also time and money taken away from his practice. “I know that if I don’t do it, no one is going to do it,” he says. “It is busy but I have to balance and I have to sacrifice my time knowing that in the future, if you look 10 years down the road, things will be set and we don’t have to do this again.” “We just need to get the ground work set up. I just want to make sure it’s done properly from the beginning and after that, it’s smooth sailing.” ® Strong on inflammation, gentle on patients Effective relief of muscle and joint pain, as well as inflammation associated with injuries. Supported by over two dozen scientific studies, Traumeel S is a clinically proven preparation formulated to help regulate inflammation. ® Traumeel S relieves muscle pain, bruising and inflammation associated with injuries such as sprains and contusions, as well as joint pain. ® www.heel.ca www.traumeel.ca April 2014 Canadian Chiropractor 25
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor April 2014: Page 25
