Kerala govt soon to constitute a statutory body for registration of certificate of B Pharm Ayurveda

Chennai, August 10, 2022 :

The government of Kerala may soon find a solution to the problem of registration of certificate of the Ayurveda pharmacy graduates (B Pharm Ayurveda) with a statutory body in the state, according to the state association of the B Pharm Ayurveda graduates.

Hundreds of graduates in Ayurveda pharmacy have been struggling for over ten years, in the absence of a registration council, to get their degree certificates registered with a statutory body. According to Ayurveda Pharmacy Graduates Association (APGA), all states where this degree course is conducted in the country, except Kerala, have constituted separate councils or made makeshift arrangements for registration of Ayurveda pharmacy certificates.

In Kerala, since no such facility has been made till day, APGA met the health minister directly and apprised of the problems they face due to the lack of a registration body. It is learnt that the minister has wanted the department of Ayush and the department of Ayurveda medical education to study the probabilities for registration with the existing registration wing under the Travancore-Cochin Medical Council (TCMC) until a separate council is formed for the purpose.

KS Kiran Kumar, president of the APGA who met the health minister last week told Pharmabiz that the minister is now convinced of the problems of the APGs and assured him that the government will do the possible thing to solve the crisis. He said the memorandum given by him on behalf of the association was forwarded to concerned departments for speedy action. He further said, sources from the Ayush department informed him that a solution for their registration problem would be found very shortly.

As regards the situation in other states, APGA said, the respective governments have permitted the Ayurveda pharmacy graduates to get registrations from the board of Ayurveda or ISM councils operating there. The governments of Gujarat, Punjab, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have accepted the qualification as valid for registration and approved as eligible for applying for drug inspector posts. Unfortunately, even after 15 years of completion of the technical course, the Ayurveda pharmacists have to remain as unregistered bachelors in Kerala which is the hub of Ayurveda.

Apart from Kerala, degree in Ayurveda pharmacy course is conducted at the Institute of Ayurveda Pharmaceutical Sciences in Jamnagar in Gujarat, Lovely Professional University in Chandigarh, Banaras Hindu University at Varanasi in UP, Himachal Pradesh Technical University in HP, Manav Bharati University in HP and BCDA College of Pharmacy and Technology in Kolkata. In Kerala, MVR Ayurveda Medical College in Kannur is the lone institute that runs the course for more than one and half a decade.

He said in addition to the registration problem, the association has wanted the government to create specific posts as per the drugs and cosmetics act for the Ayurveda pharmacists. As per the allopathy system, the drug inspector post in ISM department should be reserved for the pharmacy qualified technical graduates. Further, there are posts of research officers, pharmacognosy officers, scientific officers, ISM pharmacists and quality control officers.

Regarding the course structure and syllabus of the B Pharm Ayurveda, Kiran said they learn almost all the papers of the allopathic B Pharm course and in addition to that their syllabus includes papers from all systems of the Indian Medicines. Modern subjects like pharmaceutics, pharmacognozy, pharmacology, pharmaceutical engineering, pharmaceutical analysis, chemistry of natural medicines are also included in the curriculum. Pharmabiz