New Delhi: Out of 8 lakh AYUSH practitioners (doctors) registered with the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) across India, 49,973 practitioners are from Gujarat. With regard to number of AYUSH hospitals, Gujarat has 64 out of a total of 4035 spread across India. The Minister of State of the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik, provided this information in Rajya Sabha while replying to questions asked by RS MP Shri Parimal Nathwani.

In Gujarat, out of total 49,973 AYUSH practitioners, the largest number at 26,716 practiced Ayurveda, another 22,930 were Homeopathy practitioners and Unani accounted for 327. Gujarat had the 5th largest number of AYUSH practitioners amongst all states, with Maharashtra at 1.53 lakh and Bihar at 1.36 lakh ranked at number one and two in India. In case of 64 AYUSH hospitals located in Gujarat, 42 are for Ayurveda, 16 for Homeopathy and 6 for Naturopathy. Gujarat ranked at number eight in terms of AYUSH hospitals, while Uttar Pradesh with 2316 numbers accounted more than half of the total number of 4035 AYUSH hospitals in India. The data provided by Government are as of April 2018.

Shri Parimal Nathwani wanted to know about the number of AYUSH doctors practicing Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Unani, Siddha and Naturopathy in India along with the total number of AYUSH hospitals functioning across the country, state-wise. He also asked regarding the steps being taken by Government to link healthcare facilities of AYUSH with mainstream.

The Minister stated that as per the National Health Policy, AYUSH is to provide comprehensive set of preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative services. This policy ensures access to AYUSH remedies through co-location in public facilities. Policy recognises the need to standardize and validate Ayurvedic medicines and establish a robust and effective quality control mechanism for AYUSH drugs. Policy focuses on development of sustainable livelihood systems through involving local communities and establishing forward and backward market linkages in processing of medicinal plants. Also, to strengthen steps for farming of herbal plants.