‘I can make you straight in three months’: Inside India’s gay conversion industry
Widely discredited around the world, conversion therapy – which aims to change someone’s sexual orientation – is still legal in India but the practice of it by doctors is banned.
Above a second-hand car shop on a bustling Delhi street, sits the office of the Indian capital’s self-proclaimed “best sexologist”.
Dr Shriyans Jain is smartly dressed in a crisp white shirt and black waistcoat with a jet black moustache adorning his upper lip. His thick, dark hair is swept across his forehead. I’m going undercover to investigate claims he offers gay and lesbian people a cure for their sexuality.
He is trained in modern medicine (MBBS qualified) but also practises ayurvedic medicine (a traditional type of Indian medical system). He’s also registered with the Delhi Medical Council. His website proudly trumpets his credentials, and lists several of the conditions he treats with herbal medicine. They include premature ejaculation, erectile dysfunction and even infertility. But the service he offers gay and lesbian patients doesn’t appear to be advertised.
Dr Shriyans Jain
Widely discredited around the world, conversion therapy – which aims to change someone’s sexual orientation – is still legal in India – just as it is in the UK. It can involve the use of medication, treatments like electric shock therapy and even violence.
Practising it is considered “medical misconduct” in India after a ruling by the Indian Medical Commission in 2022, the industry’s regulatory body. It wrote to all the State Medical Councils empowering them to take disciplinary action against any medical practitioners who undertake it. In some cases, they could lose their licences.
Posing as a gay woman enquiring about whether I could change my sexuality, I arrive at Dr Jain’s office. The waiting room walls are lined with framed pictures of him with various dignitaries and awards. Inside, the blinds are drawn and a security camera nestles in the corner. Above his desk, hangs an imposing metal sculpture of seven horses pulling the sun.
I sit down and, to my surprise, it’s mere minutes before Dr Jain tells me about his “lifelong cure” that will make me straight by altering my hormonal balance and “mental activity”. The treatment will take a maximum of three months and is totally safe, he assures me.
The entrance to Dr Jain’s facility
How can he be so sure it will work?
“You have to trust your doctor,” he says, smiling benevolently. He says he’s treated countless numbers of gay and lesbian patients. While he can’t recall the exact figure he seems confident of success. Some patients feel the effects in 15 days, he adds. “You get a change in your body. Your curiosity will develop.”
A low immune system and poor dietary habits such as eating meat are possibly the cause of my sexuality, says Dr Jain. He moves his head from side to side as if he’s pondering a host of potential causes.
“So meat can make you gay?” I ask, incredulously.
“You have to take precautions for it,” he replies.
A medical exam is carried out. Then, I am directed to stand on a vibration machine in the waiting room for about 10 minutes – it looks like the ones used for muscle strengthening and weight loss. A big plate pulses beneath my feet. I struggle to keep my balance as my body jiggles around.
Finally, a member of Dr Jain’s team hands me three tubes of pills and instructs me to take them daily. The medication costs around £150 in total. I’m told they’re herbal but beyond that I don’t know what is in them.
Keep in touch via video call, Dr Jain, says if I have any more questions or want to order more medication online. He seems proud the pills are manufactured in-house.
Dr SP Singh, a homoeopathic doctor at the Dr Dilbag Clinic
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Dr Jain is not alone in offering a ‘cure’ for sexual orientation. Elsewhere in Delhi, my colleague, posing as a gay man, meets Dr SP Singh, a homoeopathic doctor at the Dr Dilbag Clinic. The atmosphere is more relaxed here, and the doctor is casually dressed in a white and yellow striped polo shirt.
During the consultation, he claims to have cured more than 500 lesbian and gay people. Being gay is a “psychological” disease, he says, but his treatment will make you “normal” within four months.
“The problem is the way you think,” says Dr Singh. “And with the medicines the problem will be solved.” Like Dr Jain, Dr Singh claims there would be no side effects.
When Sky News contacted both doctors for comment, they denied any wrongdoing. There are likely many other doctors offering a similar service, who don’t see any issue with it, despite the guidance by the NMC. They both seem convinced of their own theories and remedies.
The NMC covers modern medicine and those breaching the rules are potentially crossing a wide range of legal and ethical issues while trying to cure homosexuality. While other systems may subscribe to their regulations, the vast array of alternative medicine in India is often monitored and regulated differently.
There is a range of different conversion therapy techniques. Certain people may argue particular therapies are more harmful than others and distinguish between those they deem “consensual”.
Currently, 25 countries have some form of ban on conversion therapy- some explicit legislative bans, some indirect.
The fact is this isn’t an Indian problem. Far from it. But our time in the country has shown us there is a clear demand for the service that persists, illustrating the societal pressures inherent in this largely rural, and deeply traditional, nation.
The entrance to Dr Singh’s clinic
According to activists, there are a huge number of desperate individuals and families privately seeking sexuality cures from doctors.
Many patients, and perhaps health professionals, still don’t know about the regulation that was brought in to try to stop conversion therapy. But in many ways, India has gone further than other countries in trying to stop the practice. LGBTQIA+ campaigners in the UK say Britain has been too slow to bring in a ban.
There is also that chance that India, where homosexuality was only legalised five years ago, could be about to become only the second country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage. At a rally in Pune in western India, hundreds of LGBTQIA+ activists make their voices heard, ahead of the Supreme Court’s vote on the issue.
The reality is many still don’t feel accepted, especially those living in rural communities. “We feel less human, less included and less part of society,” a protestor wearing large sunglasses and bright red lipstick tells me.
“I’m gay, that’s ok. I’m lesbian, that’s ok,” the crowd chants as it processes through the streets. People of all ages hold aloft handmade signs, Pride flags and rainbow umbrellas.
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Police stride slowly alongside keeping a watch on this peaceful gathering. Their message is simple – they want acceptance and to enjoy basic rights such as being able to buy a house with their partner and adopt a child.
“My family tried to cure me of my sexuality,” says Sonia Singhal, 38, an activist who says that when she came out as a lesbian to her late father, he took her to see a priest who told her she’d been invaded by a male spirit.
Now, two decades later, she is overcome with emotion when contemplating the difference that legalising same-sex marriage might have in her homeland. “I can’t express it,” she says, tearfully. “There is a generation coming behind us. At least we can do something for them.”
India is a place of paradox. The opposition of the religious bodies and the government to gay marriage makes legalisation in this instance unlikely. And when it comes to conversion therapy, activists claim the regulatory body is too weak to take meaningful action against those who persist in profiting from it.
gay conversion narrate
Human rights activist Anjali Goplan, complained to the Delhi Medical Council about alleged conversion cases more than five years ago. Two doctors were temporarily suspended. “It seems like the medical profession is out of the reach of the law,” she says. “Everyone is doing whatever they want.”
In her view, the doctors who practise this “should be barred for the rest of their lives from playing with somebody’s life like that”.
But there are a lot of practitioners to monitor in this vast country, lots of different types of medicine and lot of secrecy in communities to counteract. Without it being criminalised, it’s hard to see how it will ever truly end.
An Israeli air strike has hit a hospital in Gaza City, with pictures showing the devastating aftermath at some of its wards.
The al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital was hit by multiple missiles, the Hamas-run health ministry said, adding hundreds of patients, medical personnel, and their companions were on site at the time of the attack.
It said the Israeli army had targeted what it described as “one of the oldest and most vital healthcare institutions operating in the Gaza Strip”.
One patient died during the evacuation as medical staff were unable to provide urgent care, it said.
No other casualties have been reported.
Pic: AP
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said they “struck a command and control centre used by Hamas” in the hospital.
“The compound was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” they said in a statemement.
“Prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians or to the hospital compound, including issuing advanced warnings in the area of the terror infrastructure, the use of precise munitions, and aerial surveillance.
“The Hamas terrorist organisation systematically violates international law while using civilian infrastructure, brutally exploiting the civilian population as a human shield for its terrorist activities.”
The health facility’s director, Dr Fadel Naim, said they were warned of the attack beforehand.
A closer look at what was the hospital’s outpatient and laboratory wards. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Hamas has denied using hospitals for military purposes throughout the war and has accused Israel of intentionally targeting its medical infrastructure in its ongoing offensive.
The latest strikes come after Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas and restarted its air and ground offensive.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has also imposed a month-long blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid – a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.
Israel reconstructs Morag corridor
The Morag Corridor under construction. Pic: IDF
On Saturday, Israel said it had completed the construction of a new security corridor that cuts off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza.
The security corridor was referred to by Israeli officials as the Morag Axis, a reference to a former Israeli settlement previously located in an area between the two southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
The prime minister said the move gives Israel control of a second axis in southern Gaza in addition to the Philadelphi Corridor, running along the border with Egypt, which Israel sees as a key line stopping weapons being smuggled into Gaza.
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Israeli forces encircle Rafah
Israel has also gained control of the Netzarim Corridor, which cuts off the northern third of Gaza from the rest of the territory.
Morag’s construction is part of Israel’s pledge to seize large parts of Gaza to pressure Hamas to release remaining hostages and accept proposed ceasefire terms, and it further squeezes Palestinians into shrinking areas of land.
In a statement on Saturday, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said his country’s military would soon expand “rapidly” throughout most of Gaza and that Palestinians would “have to evacuate the fighting zones”.
He did not say where Palestinians were supposed to go.
The war between Israel and Hamas began when Hamas-led militants invaded Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Some 59 hostages are still being held in Gaza, with 24 still believed to be alive.
The ensuing Israeli offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but has previously said more than half of those killed in the conflict are women and children.
World
Iran says ‘indirect talks’ have taken place with US over nuclear programme – with more to follow
Iran says “indirect talks” over the country’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme have taken place with US officials, with more to come next week.
The discussions on Saturday took place in Muscat, Oman, with the host nation’s officials mediating between representatives of Iran and the US, who were seated in separate rooms, according to Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry.
After the talks concluded, Oman and Iranian officials reported that Iran and the US had had agreed to hold more negotiations next week.
Oman’s foreign minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi tweeted after the meeting, thanking Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff for joining the negotiations aimed at “global peace, security and stability”.
“We will continue to work together and put further efforts to assist in arriving at this goal,” he added.
(L-R) Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi meets his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi. Pic: Iranian foreign ministry/AP
Iranian state media claimed the US and Iranian officials “briefly spoke in the presence of the Omani foreign minister” at the end of the talks – a claim Mr Araghchi echoed in a statement on Telegram.
He added the talks took place in a “constructive atmosphere based on mutual respect” and that they would continue next week.
American officials did not immediately acknowledge the reports from Iran.
Mr Araghchi said before the meeting on Saturday there was a “chance for initial understanding on further negotiations if the other party [US] enters the talks with an equal stance”.
He told Iran’s state TV: “Our intention is to reach a fair and honourable agreement – from an equal footing.
“And if the other side has also entered from the same position, God willing, there will be a chance for an initial agreement that can lead to a path of negotiations.”
Reuters news agency said an Omani source told it the talks were focused on de-escalating regional tensions, prisoner exchanges and limited agreements to ease sanctions in exchange for controlling Iran’s nuclear programme.
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Trump on Monday: ‘We’re in direct talks with Iran’
President Donald Trump has insisted Tehran cannot get nuclear weapons.
He said on Monday that the talks would be direct, but Tehran officials insisted it would be conducted through an intermediary.
Mr Trump also warned Iran would be in “great danger” if negotiations fail.
“Hopefully those talks will be successful, it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful,” he said. “We hope that’s going to happen.”
He added Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks aren’t successful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran”.
The comments came after Mr Trump’s previous warnings of possible military action against Iran if there is no deal over its nuclear programme.
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Saturday’s meeting marked the first between the countries since Mr Trump’s second term in the White House began.
During his first term, he withdrew the US from a deal between Iran and world powers designed to curb Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.
He also reimposed US sanctions.
Iran has since far surpassed that deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is wholly for civilian energy purposes but Western powers accuse it of having a clandestine agenda.
Mr Witkoff came from talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday, as the US tries to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.
World
President Duda says Trump best chance for Ukraine peace – and urges allies to stay calm over tariffs ‘shock therapy’
Poland’s outgoing President Andrzej Duda has kept few revelations for the final weeks of his presidency.
Ten years in office – a tenure spanning Donald Trump’s first and current term – his admiration for the incumbent leader of the free world remains undimmed. As is his conviction that Ukraine’s only chance of peace lies with the US leader.
In an interview with Sky News in the presidential palace in Warsaw, President Duda described Mr Trump‘s tariff policy as “shock therapy”, a negotiating tactic from a man “of huge business and commercial success” that he now brings to the arena of politics.
That may not be what European politicians are used to, Mr Duda says, but Donald Trump is answerable to the US taxpayer and not to his European counterparts, and allies must “stay calm” in the face of this new transatlantic modus operandi.
As for negotiations with Vladimir Putin, President Duda is sure that Donald Trump has the measure of the Russian leader, while refusing to be drawn on the competencies of his chief negotiator Steve Witkoff who landed on Friday in Moscow for further talks with Vladimir Putin – a man Mr Witkoff has described as “trustworthy” and “not a bad guy”.
Putting the kybosh on Nord Stream 2 in his first term and thwarting President Putin’s energy ambitions via his state-owned energy giant Gazprom are evidence enough that Mr Trump knows where to hit so it hurts, Mr Duda says.
Given the failures of Europe’s leaders to negotiate peace through the Minsk accords, he believes the onus now falls on Donald Trump.
“If anyone is able to force the end of Russia’s war, it is most likely only the President of the United States,” he says.
“The question is whether he will be determined enough to do that in a way – because it is also very important here in Europe being a neighbour of Russian aggression against Ukraine – that the peace is fair and lasting.”
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The Polish NATO base on the frontline with Russia
President Duda has just weeks left in office before the country votes for a new president in May.
Originally from Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party, one of the few points of alignment with the liberal and euro-centric prime minister Donald Tusk is the emphasis both place on security.
Hopes for ‘Fort Trump’ base
So did the announcement this week that the US would be withdrawing from the Jasionka air base near Rzeszow, which is the key logistics hub for allied support into Ukraine, come as a shock to the president, as it did to many Poles?
Not at all, Mr Duda says.
“We were warned that the change was planned. I have not received any information from [the US] about decreasing the number of American soldiers. Quite the opposite.”
US defence secretary Hegseth and President Duda met in February. Pic: Reuters
He referred back to talks with US defence secretary Pete Hegseth in February, saying: “We discussed strengthening the American presence in Poland, and I mentioned the idea of creating a huge base of US troops. Then, we called it Fort Trump. I do still hope that this idea will be implemented.”
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Andrzej Duda has staked his legacy on close ties with Donald Trump at a time when many NATO allies are considering a form of de-Americanisation, as they consider new trading realities and build up their own defence capabilities.
Poland has proven itself a model in terms of defence spending, investing more than any other NATO member – a massive 4.7% of GDP for 2025. But as the case of Canada shows, even the best of friendships can turn sour.
The Canadian conservative party, once dubbed a maple MAGA, was flying high in the polls before Donald Trump decided to savage links with his closest trading partner.
Now in the space of just a few months they are floundering behind the ruling liberal party. Is this a cautionary tale for Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party?
“For Canadian conservatives it is a kind of side effect of President Trump’s very tough economic policy,” Mr Duda says.
“In Poland, this does not have such an impact. The security issues are the most important. That’s the most important issue in Poland.”
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