India Herbs

Publication: hindu.com

Date: December 27th 2006

In an alarming finding about alternative medical institutions, a parliamentary panel has said that 142 colleges of Ayurveda, Unani and Homoeopathy colleges in the country lack minimum infrastructure.

A report prepared by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found that this includes 35 newly established colleges. It said, the teaching facility standards in these colleges were low and that all of them face a severe teaching staff crunch.

“A test check of records of 142 colleges — Ayurveda (58), Unani (14) and Homoeopathy (70) colleges, including 35 new colleges — which were inspected, revealed that none of them meet the minimum requirement of infrastructural and teaching facility standards prescribed,” the report said.

“Colleges with persistent deficiencies in infrastructure were denied permission to run courses during this five year period ranged between one and 13,” it said.

The Health Ministry, while agreeing with the observations, said the Regulatory Councils would consider the system of inspection of colleges at the earliest.

The deficiencies in these 142 colleges came to the light when their records by the representatives of Regulatory Councils from 2000-05 were checked.

BJP MP and Chairman of the PAC, Vijay Kumar Malhotra who had presented the 38th report to the Lok Sabha on Performance Audit of Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) said 32 to 59 per cent of the Ayurvedic colleges and 23 to 71 per cent of the Homoeopathy colleges were inspected every year by the Regulatory Councils during 2000-05.

The panel said, no systematic or rational system for inspecting the colleges had been devised or followed and visits were generally carried out randomly. It noted that 61 to 62 per cent colleges of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy were inspected only once or twice in the last five years.

Records of educational institutes in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal showed shortage of teaching staff ranging between 19 and 72 per cent and paramedical and other staff ranging between 13 and 78 per cent.

Bed occupancy shortage ranged between one and 71 per cent in these colleges, panel said.

The Committee said, the records of the Central Council of Indian Medicine and Central Council of Homeopathy showed that medical qualification awarded by 69 out of 444 colleges were yet to be recognised.

“A high-level committee should investigate into the reason and circumstances, under which these colleges were allowed to run courses without recognition by the Regulatory Councils,” it said.

The Committee has noted that there has been “little success” in popularising alternative systems of medicine in the country and have said that the budget should be increased so that a 20-year roadmap could be formulated.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS