The Department of Ayush under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has announced a set of basic guidelines to be followed by various states for the registration of practitioners and accreditation of institutions, with a view to regulate the naturopathy stream of medical practice in the country.

While naturopathy is one of the AYUSH systems, there is no Central legislation to regulate it unlike Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha, which are under the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970 and Homoeopathy, which is regulated by the Homoeopathy Central Council Act, 1973. In the case of naturopathy, the only legislation available in the country is the State Acts in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, which regulate the registration of practitioners in these states.

As per the guidelines, there will be a competent authority for the grant of registration and accreditation in each State and Union Territory to be nominated by the Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN). The authority will grant registration and accreditation on the basis of the guidelines and will have the authority to conduct inspections and evaluation visits. Accreditation will be for a fixed period of 5 years and will have to be renewed after the expiry of this period.

Class "A" registration will be given to institutionally qualified professional practitioners possessing a 4 or 4 ½ years Diploma in Naturopathy (N.D.) awarded by the Government of Andhra Pradesh/Osmania University OR a 5 or 5 ½ years Degree in Bachelor of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences from any University set up by a statute. In exceptional cases, Class A registration may also be given to self educated Naturopathic practitioners who are Post-graduates in any subject and who have at least 25 years of working experience in reputed and established Naturopathic hospitals or colleges and who are not less than 45 years of age.

Class "B" registration may also be given to self-educated full time Naturopathy practitioners who are not institutionally qualified and are not less than 35 years of age, who have a minimum of 15 years of full time proven clinical experience and who have passed Class XII or 10 + 2 from a State Board, the CBSE or the ICSE.

Self-educated practitioners will be awarded registration based on verifying the credentials and based on a written examination and interview conducted by the authority.

Separate specific guidelines have been issued for accreditation of hospitals and teaching institutions. The objectives of the accreditation of institutions are to ensure that Naturopathy hospitals offer safe, reliable and quality medical and health care, institutions offering naturopathy medical education are of acceptable academic quality relevant to the health care requirements of the country.

The guidelines have specified the subjects to be taught in each year of the courses in colleges and the basic norms for the accreditation of Naturopathy Medical education institutions offering BNYS courses. The guidelines also suggest detailed mandatory minimum requirements needed for running a naturopathy hospital.

Sources pointed out that an appropriate regulatory framework for Naturopathy has been under the consideration of the Central Government for some time now.