Bengaluru: Yoga and naturopathy students and graduates are deeply disappointed with the Union government’s decision to drop the two subjects from the proposed National Commission Bill for Indian Systems of Medicine.
While several yoga and naturopathy teaching institutions had pinned their hopes on the Modi government constituting a National Commission for Indian Systems of Medicine, the bill cleared by the Cabinet recently, covers only ayurveda, unani, siddha and homeopathy.
Chairman of the SDM College of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences, Dr.Veerendra Heggade, has in a letter dated January 29 this year to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister for AYUSH, Sripad Yesso Naik urged them to set right this omission, pointing out that yoga and naturopathy are also part of the traditional Indian system of medicine covered by the Ayush Ministry. Moreover, with them gaining popularity the world over, it was important to have a national commission overseeing them, he argued.
Reliable sources in the Ayush ministry say the omission is deliberate as the Centre has given in to pressure from yogic institutions run by those closely associated with the BJP government as once naturopathy and yogic sciences are covered by the national commission, they will be regulated by the Centre, which they are against.
The country has 25 colleges teaching naturopathy and yogic sciences and of them three are run by the government. In 2010, a three- year M.D. course in naturopathy, yoga, diet and nutrition was started at the SDM College of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences and the first batch passed out in 2014.
