LUCKNOW, June 15 -- The state capital is home to top-tier multi-specialty hospitals, state-of-the-art diagnostic centres, and government-backed medical colleges. But the city is also witnessing the quiet proliferation of a parallel, unregulated healthcare economy, operating from 20x20 feet, or even 10x10 clinics housed in black tents.

Run by quacks, these black tarpaulin tent clinics have sprung up beside busy roads, under flyovers and on vacant plots near marketplaces across various neighbourhoods in Lucknow, including Charbagh, Chinhat, Mahanagar and Cantt. Ironically, one such tent can be seen barely 500 metres from the Kalyan Singh Super Speciality Cancer Institute in Lucknow, one of the city's well-known government-run hospitals in ...