Central government will make it mandatory for all the naturopath consultants to register themselves with a `registration and accreditation board' under the department of Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy by next year. The board would draft rules for the naturopath consultants and for the naturopath colleges separately. This is in a bid to curb the unethical and unfair trade practices in naturopathy in the country.

National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN) in Pune has proposed the concept of central registration of naturopath consultants. Talking to this correspondent, Director of National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN) in Pune, Dr. Chidananda Murthy said presently only three states viz. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have the registration system for the naturopath consultants. Stressing on the need of such registration process all over the country he said that in the absence of any concrete laws and registration process, illegal operating naturopathy training centres mushroomed in large numbers in most of the states. He opined that with no proper requisite infrastructure in place such centres are fooling students by giving them certificate and diploma courses. "The certificate obtained from such centres are of no help to the students as they are not trained well and also the institutes are not approved or recognized by any university," he further added that the students also do not get jobs in naturopath hospitals.

He feared the presence of more than 50 such illegal centres all over the country, which claims to give a diploma/certificate, courses in naturopathy.

The presence of such large number of illegal centres churns out only quacks who start their own practice when they are not accepted by any naturopath hospitals. "All this can be curbed only with proper legal scrutiny of such illegal training centres," he reiterated.

He expressed the hope that the proposed board would wipe out all the bogus practitioners and illegal training centres from the country and facilitate the central accreditation and medical registration of genuine naturopaths in the country.

Dr. Murthy further explained that presently only seven colleges give four and half year degree course (BNYS - Bachelor of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences) in naturopathy in the country. "There is no such college in Maharashtra," he lamented. At NIN, there is a one-year certificate course in naturopathy nursing and by next year a two-year diploma course will be started at the institute. `` There are total of 100 students that pass out of naturopathy nursing course every year in the country at the government approved centres,'' said Dr. Murthy.

"After few years we plan to start a degree course in naturopathy and yoga of five and half years, too,'' revealed Dr. Murthy. As a part of its future plans NIN also plans to acquire a land of 100 acres around Pune to establish a 200 bedded naturopathy and yoga hospital of national standard. Said Dr. Murthy, "This hospital can act as a nodal institute in the country. NIN would solicit land from the state government and from the Philanthropist of Pune and around."