‘I can make you straight in three months’ – the doctors flouting India’s ban on conversion therapy

Published

2 years ago

July 28, 2023

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Widely discredited around the world, conversion therapy – which aims to change someone’s sexual orientation – is still legal in India but the practise 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

World

Gaza food situation ‘worst it’s ever been’, charity says – as tank attack reportedly kills 12 at camp

Published

8 hours ago

July 22, 2025

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Gaza food situation 'worst it's ever been', charity says - as tank attack reportedly kills 12 at camp

An aid worker in Gaza has told Sky News the food situation in the enclave is “absolutely desperate” and “the worst it’s ever been”.

Her comments to chief presenter Mark Austin come amid fresh outcry over aid restrictions, with the UK joining 24 other countries to urge an immediate end to the war.

It also comes as at least 12 more Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded when tanks shelled a tent encampment in western Gaza City, according to health authorities.

Middle East latest: Key points from UK statement on Gaza

Medics, speaking early on Tuesday, said two shells were fired at tents housing displaced people from tanks positioned north of the Shati camp.

Israel hasn’t yet commented on the reports.

Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save The Children, spoke to Sky News from Deir al Balah, a city where tens of thousands of people have sought refuge during repeated waves of mass displacement.

She said: “One of my colleagues said to me yesterday, ‘We are all walking together towards death’. And this is the situation now for people in Gaza.

“There is no food for their children, it’s absolutely desperate here.”

“The markets are empty,” she said. “People may even have cash in their pockets yet they cannot buy bread [or] vegetables.

“My team have said to me, ‘There’s nothing in my house to feed my children, my children are crying all day, every day.”

Israel launched a ground assault on southern and eastern Deir al Balah for the first time on Monday after having issued an evacuation order.

Local medics said at least three people were killed when houses and mosques were hit by tank shelling.

Sources told Reuters news agency that Israel believes some of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas in October 2023 could be in the area.

Ms Cummings’s remarks came as the UK and 24 other nations issued a joint statement calling for a ceasefire.

The statement criticised aid distribution in Gaza, which is being managed by a US and Israel-backed organisation, Gaza Health Foundation (GHF).

Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed while trying to get food in recent weeks, both from GHF and UN convoys.

“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the joint statement said.

The 25 countries also called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of hostages captured by Hamas during the 7 October 2023 attacks.

Lammy promises £40m for Gaza

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has promised £40m for humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

He told MPs: “We are leading diplomatic efforts to show that there must be a viable pathway to a Palestinian state involving the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, in the security and governance of the area.

“Hamas can have no role in the governance of Gaza, nor use it as a launchpad for terrorism.”

Addressing the foreign secretaries’ joint written statement, charity worker Liz Allcock – who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in Gaza – told Sky News: “While we welcome this, there have been statements in the past 21 months and nothing has changed.

“In fact, things have only got worse. And every time we think it can’t get worse, it does.”

“Without a reversal of the siege, the lack of supplies, the constant bombardment, the forced displacement, the killing, the militarisation of aid, we are going to collapse as a humanitarian response,” she said.

“And this would do a grave injustice to the 2.2 million people we’re trying to serve.

“An immediate and permanent ceasefire, and avenues for accountability in line with international law, is the minimum people here deserve.”

The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.

More than 59,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

In recent weeks hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly been killed while waiting for food and aid.

The Israeli military has blamed Hamas militants for fomenting chaos and endangering civilians.

World

Trade war: Is August escalation on – or will Trump chicken out?

Published

8 hours ago

July 22, 2025

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Trade war: Is August escalation on - or will Trump chicken out?

Donald Trump is clearly seething over the term ‘TACO’ (Trump always chickens out) – a phrase that has characterised financial market trading over the past few months.

It suggests that for all the president’s bluster and threats during his on-off trade war to date, he rarely follows through.

When asked by a reporter about TACO in late May, as his “liberation day” escalation remained on pause, he declared it a “nasty” question and said he wanted negotiations.

Money latest: ‘Biggest July house price drop in 20 years’

Mr Trump wants a deal but to effectively bully America’s trading partners into agreeing better terms.

It’s a playbook that has defined his time in the White House and, as things stand, more than 20 nations and territories, including Japan and South Korea, face heightened tariffs of up to 40% on their exports to the US from 1 August.

Financial markets don’t really believe it. Stock markets, for example, are still hovering near or at record levels in both the US and in Europe. The FTSE 100 closed above 9,000 points for the first time on Monday evening. TACO is ingrained in those values.

But are markets in for a shock, especially when it comes to the fight with America’s single largest trading partner, the European Union? It was created, Mr Trump has previously claimed, to “screw” the United States.

It’s fair to say there was great optimism in the EU earlier this month that a deal, similar to that agreed between the US and UK, was looming to avert the worst of a threatened 30% baseline tariff from 1 August.

But the mood music in Brussels changed at the back end of last week and now EU diplomats are even briefing that a broader range of retaliation measures is being considered beyond additional tariffs on US goods.

The seriousness of this fight should not be underestimated.

EU figures show trade in goods and services between the bloc and the US account for almost a third of all global trade, at a value in 2024 alone of €1.68trn (£1.45trn).

EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic has warned that a 30% tariff would “practically prohibit” the bloc’s transatlantic trade, according to remarks via diplomats reported by the Reuters news agency.

We’re told that, even if time runs out, a truce could theoretically be agreed soon after 1 August.

Much will depend on the EU’s response.

Does it go down the route taken by the UK and not retaliate, pending the conclusion of talks?

There is growing pressure on Brussels to call Mr Trump’s bluff.

The EU has a package of tariffs on €21bn of US goods ready to go from 6 August. An additional package is yet to be finalised.

France is demanding US services are hit too, with even Germany now saying such an escalation should be considered.

The so-called “anti-coercion” instrument, as it’s known, would also potentially allow the bloc to limit US companies’ access to financial service markets in the EU.

So what happens after 1 August could be even more explosive.

But there is every reason to believe that a tit-for-tat escalation is unlikely, at least for long.

The very reason Donald Trump rowed back on his “liberation day” tariffs in April, allowing 90 days for talks, was likely the dire financial market reaction that followed news of the widespread duties.

You have a president demanding interest rate cuts (at a time when inflation is on the rise due to the impact of tariffs) in a bid to boost flagging economic growth.

Mr Trump says his trade war is all about boosting US manufacturing jobs but, at the end of the day, no powerbase of voters is going to accept a threat to the value of their investments for long.

No big US company will stand by and see its sales suffer.

TACO? It’s a solid bet.

World

Plane crashes into college campus in Bangladesh – at least 19 people dead

Published

8 hours ago

July 22, 2025

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Plane crashes into college campus in Bangladesh - at least 19 people dead

At least 19 people have died after a Bangladesh air force plane crashed into a college campus, the military said.

The aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College in Uttara, in the northern area of the capital Dhaka, where students were taking tests or attending regular classes.

The pilot was one of the people killed, and, according to the military, 164 were injured in the incident.

The Bangladesh military’s public relations department added that the aircraft was an F-7 BGI, and had taken off at 1.06pm local time before crashing shortly after.

Video shows fire and smoke rising from the crash site, with hundreds looking on.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Bengali-language daily newspaper Prothom Alo said that most of the injured were students with burn injuries.

Citing the duty officer at the fire service control room, Prothom Alo also reported that the plane had crashed on the roof of the college canteen.

Rafiqa Taha, a 16-year-old student at the school who was not present at the time of the crash, told the Associated Press that the school has around 2,000 students.

“I was terrified watching videos on TV,” she added. “My God! It’s my school.”