Indigenous medicine losing favour.

Times Of India, 09/09/2011

CHENNAI: Indigenous medicine is losing patronage in the country. The union health ministry has de-recognised nearly half of the colleges offering courses in Indian medicine due to the dwindling number of patients and poor infrastructure. Notifications denying permission have been issued to over 140 of the 320 colleges in the country. About 114 institutions have been granted permission while the results of the others are not known.

The Central Council for Indian Medicine (CCIM), the regulatory body for education in Indian medicine, inspected campuses and sent reports to the department of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy). Based on these reports, the decision to cancel permission for some colleges, including those run by the centre and states, was taken. Karnataka topped the list with 33 colleges losing recognition, followed by Maharashtra with 25 and Uttar Pradesh with 16. Among the various streams of Indian medicine, Siddha colleges seemed to be the worst affected. Of the eight undergraduate medical colleges offering the course in the country, only one private institution was accorded permission. At the National Institute of Siddha, a central institution that runs postgraduate courses, the number of seats have been cut to half.

CCIM vice-president (Siddha) Dr V Stanley Jones said one of the main reasons for denial of permission was the lack of patronage from patients. The rule book makes it mandatory for at least 40% of the beds to be filled. In the government college for Siddha in Palayamkottai near Tirunelveli, the oldest such institution in the state, the bed strength was only 38% in 2010. "If there are no patients, there is nothing the college can teach students. We are now asking governments and colleges to take initiatives to bring in more public support," he said.

The number of seats for Ayurveda and Unani courses is also expected to come down drastically. Apart from the lack of adequate patients, there was also dearth of faculty and lack of infrastructure. Some state governments have approached AYUSH requesting it to reconsider their decisions. The Tamil Nadu government, commissioner of Indian medicine A Mohammed Aslam said, had managed to increase in-patient strength and recruitment of faculty was on. "We hope the decision is reconsidered," he said.

An AYUSH official from New Delhi, who did not want to be named, said colleges had been given enough time to rectify errors but nothing had changed. "If we don't take action now, we fear the quality of medical education will drop," he said.

Central Council for Indian Medicine vice-president said one of the main reason for denial of permission was the lack of patronage from patients. The rule book makes it mandatory for at least 40% of the beds to be filled.

Link: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-09/chennai/30134774_1_siddha-indian-medicine-ccim

Indian medicine students get a fillip

Times Of India, 30/08/2011

CHENNAI: Students of Indian medicine will be allowed to study modern medicine and surgery, health minister V S Vijay has said. The minister, who is also the pro-chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University, said that the university's decision to scrap allopathic contents from ayurveda, siddha and unani courses would be withdrawn.

The decision was made after the minister held a meeting with senior health department and university officials, practitioners of Indian systems of medicine and students at the secretariat on Monday. In July, the university had passed a resolution in the governing council revising the syllabus for Indian medicine. Vice-chancellor Dr Mayil Vahanan Natarajan said the university would remove surgery from the nomenclature of the degrees awarded to Indian medicine students. So, students would be only Bachelor of siddha/ unani/ ayurveda/ homeopathy medicine and not bachelor of siddha unani/ ayurveda/ homeopathy medicine and surgery. On August 17, the Central Council of Indian Medicine, a regulatory body, threatened to withdraw recognition to the state medical university.

Students of Indian medicine have been boycotting classes for a week as they feared their courses would be invalid. On Saturday, students approached commissioner for Indian medicine A Mohammed Aslam and argued that the council had allowed students of Indian medicine to study parts of modern medicine to enable them to become better doctors. But the university deleted surgery, pharmacology and large sections of orthopedics and ophthalmology. If the university is not recognized, students will not be registered as doctors, they said.

Council member (siddha) Dr B Muthukumar said the university did not consider the views of the standing academic board. Six Indian medicine doctors, members of the board, advised the university not to delete allopathic contents from siddha, unani and ayurveda. "They chose to go with the views of six allopathic doctors," he said.

To end the stalemate between the university and the Indian medicine doctors the minister called the university officials for talks on Monday. "The syllabus and nomenclature are fixed by the Central Council of Indian Medicine. We told the university officials that they can't tamper with it," said Vijay.

"We have also told the Indian medicine students and doctors that they were being taught some parts of modern medicine only for the sake of acquiring knowledge and they can't prescribe allopathic medicines," he said. The University has asked the state government to list out the surgeries Indian medicine practitioners are permitted to do. "They shall not use allopathic anesthetic drugs," said university vice-chancellor Dr Natarajan.

Students of Indian medicine said they were happy with the health department's decision. "We will be back in classes from Tuesday," said R Thyagarajan, a student .

Link:http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-30/chennai/29944313_1_allopathic-modern-medicine-indian-medicine

150 AYUSH colleges barred from admitting new students

150 AYUSH colleges barred from admitting new students
Economic Times, 2nd Sepember 2011

NEW DELHI: The government has barred more than 150 colleges offering alternative and traditional medicine courses from admitting any student in the next academic session after these colleges were found violating regulatory norms. 

Spread across the country, these colleges were together taking in nearly 10,000 students every year. The alternative and traditional medicines refer to practice of ayurveda, yoga & naturopathy, unani,siddha and homoeopathy, or AYUSH. 

"Most of the colleges providing these courses did not have the mandatory hospital and adequate faculty, among other basic infrastructure," said an official with the department of AYUSH. There are about 310 AYUSH colleges in the country, with each admitting 50 students a year. 

According to the department's website, as on August 30, it has not permitted new admission to 112 colleges. Most of these educational institutes, private- and government-owned, offer under graduate and post-graduate courses in ayurveda and unani. 

The department, however, has allowed these colleges to continue teaching the existing students. About 108 other colleges have been permitted to admit students for the next academic session, but only if they address their deficiencies within two months. 

A senior industry executive said the government is partly to be blamed for the violation of norms by these institutes as it never dealt with them sternly before. 

Government officials say the industry was earlier regulated by a council that was not very effective. The department got the authority only in 2003 after an amendment in the Indian Medicine Council Act 1973. 

During a separate inspection, the department has also found about half of the country's 9,000 AYUSH manufacturing units violating the norms. They said action will be initiated against them soon. The AYUSH industry is estimated to be worth between Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore and is growing at about 15%. 

Ranjit Puranik, CEO of Mumbai-based Shree Dhootapapeshwar Ltd, a manufacturer of ayurvedic products, said several obscure colleges and firms were allowed to flourish without the basic mandatory infrastructure.

link: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/education/150-ayush-colleges-barred-from-admitting-new-students/articleshow/9830064.cms

VAIDYA AMIRTHAM 2011

Seminar - "VAIDYA AMIRTHAM 2011"

At  :     Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari

On  :   9th October 2011.

Topic   : "Application of mula siddhantas in the management of vata rogas of Siddha and Ayurvedic Systems "

Organised by :  Sri Sarada Ayuvedic Hospital & SKM center for Ayush system research and Education.