The Unani healing system, considered to be one of the traditional systems of treatment in India, is allegedly sidelined in Tamil Nadu with no effort for promotion of medicines and support for institutional development.
 
According to professionals in the area of Unani sector and in the ISM industry, this area of the alternative medicines is not getting any deserving consideration from the government though the efficacy of the treatment is proven internationally with best results. They need more attention from the government towards this age old system at par with Ayurveda and Siddha.
 
In Tamil Nadu, a host of Unani clinics are functioning with the state owned PHCs and there is a very popular Unani Medical College located in the state capital.

Experts in the Unani sector regretted that for the last several years the concerned department for manufacturing ISM medicines is not producing any Unani drugs, but concentrates on Siddha and Ayurveda. The government agency that is producing and marketing the traditional medicines is Tampcol (Tamil Nadu Medicinal Plant Farms and Herbal Medicine Corporation Limited) which undertakes the production, apart from Siddha and Ayurveda, of one Unani drugs, Laboob-e-Sagheer.
 
When contacted, some physicians in the Unani Medical College said that in Tamil Nadu a lot of people who are following this system of treatment are now bound to suffer due to non-availability of drugs. To meet the demands of hospital attached to the medical college, the drugs are being prepared separately by procuring raw drugs from Tampcol. The Shastric Unani medicines are brought from the hospitals of Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Aligarh. Even though Tampcol in Chennai has all the facilities, there is no technical person to produce Unani medicines, but it has enough staff for the other two systems.
 
Tamil Nadu government has started ISM clinics along with PHCs and Unani got 27 wings across the state. But there are only 5 doctors exclusively appointed to look after these clinics. For the remaining centres, doctors are being sent on deputation basis from medical colleges, once or twice in a week. During this time, the academic institution is facing shortage of teaching staff. Besides the 22 vacancies of doctors, the medical college lacks senior academicians like professors and readers.
 
The Unani hospital attached to the medical college treats more than 300 patients in the OP section and it has 100 beds allotted for the IP ward. Out of the 60 drugs in the available list, nearly 40 are brought from outside and Tampcol is supplying raw drugs to make the remaining number of medicines. The hospital is importing some important medicines from Arab countries.
 
Since the syllabus of the curriculum is in Urdu, most of the students are from the Muslim communities. Only students who know Urdu or Arabic can seek admission for the BUMS course.
 
According to sources, the International Conclave on Unani Medicine which is going to be held in Aligarh on 25th and 26th of next month will deliberate on how to save this system from its present plight, not only facing in Tamil Nadu , but in the national level in general.