Mumbai
is India's cosmetic surgery capital: Here's a list of medical centers and their
price tags
Some estimates say the value of the market in
India is about US$ 25 million.
Recently, the British government decided to
impose what the Brits have dubbed as the “boob tax”.
Breast enhancement in Britain will now set
patients back by an additional US$1,500, jacking up the medical bill by an
average 20 percent. In the Brit taxman’s lexicon, it is Value Added Tax,
applicable on all cosmetic surgeries in that country.
Here in India, the medical tourism business
may be a growing sector but it still remains somewhat unregulated.
India is hovering between fourth and fifth
place in the top five global destinations for medical tourism, cosmetic surgery
being a part of this; and with taxes going up in the United Kingdom, Asian
destinations are set to benefit.
Most experts agree that the Indian cosmetic
surgery sector is growing by between 20 and 30 percent, though the exact number
of tourists who visit India every year just for cosmetic surgery is not clear.
Many bundle the procedure along with their
normal travel itinerary.
Figures differ from 10,000-100,000 inbound a
year, depending on the source of information. And some estimates say the value
of the market in India is about US$ 25 million.
Cheap rates are the main reason driving these
clients to India for cosmetic surgery.
“The average dentist in the United Kingdom is
not qualified for advanced cosmetic procedures,” says Dr. Mukul Dabholkar, a
Bandra-based dentist. "A full mouth rehabilitation with bridgework, crowns
and laminates there would cost approximately Rs 20 lakh (US$39,000). In India,
this will cost Rs 6.5 lakh (US$12,600) with dentists of better caliber.
Mumbai:
Bollywood clients and the rising Indian middle class
It is not just inbound clients who propel the
growth of the Indian cosmetic surgery sector, but domestic clients too.
Some 50-60 percent of the total cosmetic
surgery tourists annually end up in Mumbai, India's entertainment capital.
Though Chennai, New Delhi, Bangalore, even Goa
and Kolkata account for the rest, everybody in the business says Mumbai stakes
claim to the top spot.
Mumbai-based cosmetic surgeon Dr. Manojkumar
Manwani, who has been in this field for almost two decades, is fairly clear
about Mumbai’s status as India’s cosmetic surgery capital.
Of all of his clients, 50 percent are from
India.
Dr. Mohan Thomas, a cosmetic surgeon who
qualified in the United States and is now practicing in India, calls Mumbai the
cosmetic surgery mecca.
Dr. Thomas is on India’s national advisory
tourism council under the Ministry of Tourism. He revealed that until two years
ago, Chennai had captured a giant share of this market because of low fees and
operating costs.
Mumbai has now pole-vaulted to the top slot
for cosmetic surgery in India, while all other cities are a distant second, he
said.
From head to toe, Mumbai’s plastic surgeons
can manipulate any outer part of the human anatomy in a long list of 175-odd
invasive and non-invasive procedures.
There are also several hospitals in Mumbai
that conduct these procedures, such as Bombay Hospital and Medical Research
Center, Asian Heart Institute, Wockhardt Hospital and Breach Candy Hospital.
India’s upper crust, though, is no longer the
sole beneficiary of the surgeon’s scalpel -- well, more usually a laser
nowadays.
The great Indian middle class is a rising
client with vanity high on the list of discretionary spending.
Cosmetic surgery in India is also shedding its
taboo tab.
Though in existence in India for about four
decades, this form of surgery was always referred to in hush-hush tones.
Film stars have always vehemently denied doing
it, explaining away their chiseled bodies to gym sessions or classical dancing.
Then along came India’s first Miss Universe,
model turned actor, Sushmita Sen, who in a newspaper interview acknowledged
that she had had silicone implants to augment her breasts.
Many others followed Miss Sen, like dancer
Rakhi Sawant and actresses Bipasha Basu, Shilpa Shetty, Sridevi and Koena Mitra
-- or so this Times of India article insists.
Traditionally thought to be a woman’s market,
men, too, have now emerged as new clients. And the clientele is younger too, as
20- and 30-somethings want to partake of the "plasty".
What’s
on the menu?
Mumbai’s cosmetic surgeons say that for the
young and the middle-aged, rhinoplasty (commonly referred to as the "nose
job") is on top of the list, then chin augmentation, lip or breast
augmentation, dental corrections and electrolysis hair removal.
For the middle-aged to the old, it is
liposuction, wrinkle removal (popularly known as Botox treatment), thread
lifts, face-lifts, hair weaving and stretch marks removal.
Foreign clients come for the “heavy-duty”
stuff like abdominoplasty (tummy tucks), laser liposuction, face lifts, breasts
augmentation and dental work, because these are extremely reasonably priced
here.
For most foreign tourists, it becomes a “see
India and get those wrinkles ironed out” kind of combined tour.
In Mumbai, a tummy tuck comes with a Rs 2 lakh
plus price tag (in the United States, the price of this is about US$4,000 i.e.
Rs 20 lakh), breast augmentation will set you back by Rs 2.20 lakh (between
US$3,000-4,000, i.e. between Rs 15-20 lakh) while a nose job starts at Rs 1
lakh.
A Botox shot costs Rs 400 per unit (in the
United States it will cost about US$70 per unit).
Amrita Ghaswalla
Business & Investment Opportunities
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