Ayurvedic Medical Association of India (AMAI), a body of ayurvedic doctors in the government and private sector, has urged the government of Kerala to include ayurvedic treatment to the Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme of the government for benefit of the poor. Now the insured gets benefit of only allopathic treatments from the state and central government schemes, said Dr V G Udayakumar, secretary of AMAI.

The Ayurvedic Medical Association has submitted a charter of demands to the Health Minister of Kerala seeking the government's intervention into the matter to redress their grievances. Dr Udayakumar said it is a shame to see the country's traditional system of healing is not in the mainstream. Even the medical officers are also not given salary equal to those of allopathic physicians, he said.

In the memorandum given to the government, the ayurvedic doctors have demanded that immediate action should be initiated against the quacks, who are running many clinics and household dispensaries claiming hereditary knowledge in the profession. The government has to take this seriously and should stop such quacks offering treatments. Otherwise, he said, public will get the impression that government is knowingly supporting the quacks.

According to the ayurvedic doctors, more than 150 villages in Kerala have no ayurvedic dispensaries despite the National Rural Health Mission have funded the scheme. Even though the main purpose of NRHM is mainstreaming of Ayurveda, the existing dispensaries have not been given sufficient staff, complains AMAI. They said a minimum daily wage for an ayurvedic doctor should be fixed to Rs 750 and the medical officers should be given salaries in the pay scale of central government doctors. When an allopathic doctor receives Rs 25000 a month, an ayurvedic doctor gets only Rs 11000.

Due to the apathetic attitude of the government towards the traditional system, the state does not have a separate drug control directorate for Indian medicines, AMAI said in the memorandum. They demanded strengthening the drug control machinery for Ayurveda with sufficient staff and offices. All the hospitals and drug control offices are facing shortage of staff, besides lack of infrastructure facilities.

The government should take initiative to start more ESI ayurvedic dispensaries to make the public avail the benefits of the system. Like wise government's immediate intervention is required to establish facilities for the students of Ayurveda to practice surgeries, memorandum said.