Students pursuing Ayurvedic and Homoeopathy courses from different government colleges in the state of Odisha have decided to resume their protests after a brief discontinuance.
The All Odisha Ayush Students’ Association (AOASA), which was jointly formed by the members of the Joint Association of Homoeopathic Medical Students’ Association (HMSA) and Ayurvedic Medical Students Association (AMSA), addressed a letter to the Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, expressing their intentions to continue their strike after a brief pause as their demands were not met on time.
The letter dated September 21, Thursday, which has also been posted on X (formerly Twitter) account of HMSA (@HMSAodisha), states that after protesting peacefully for a span of 17 days in all of the seven AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) colleges in Odisha, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, the Commissioner cum Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare and the Director, AYUSH Odisha, met with six student delegates on September 16, Saturday and gave verbal assurances that their demands will be fulfilled.
However, the representative from the organisation informed EdexLive that none of the demands have been met. The General Secretary of the students’ organisation, Dr Lopamudra Khatoi, said that a general body meeting was held today, September 22 and they resolved that they would move ahead with their pre-decided plan to continue with their protests.
“With a heavy heart and much pain the All Odisha Ayush Students Association will again move to strike from 25th of September at Dharana place, Lower PMG, Bhubaneswar until the resolution to our demands is achieved," stated the letter.
To successfully initiate and reinforce their plan of action, the interns have decided to suspend their regular duties at their hospitals as a sign of protest against their demands being unaddressed.
What are their demands?
The agitation that began on August 25 in seven medical colleges all across the state was for the non-creation of new posts for AYUSH doctors. The students allege that no new appointments were made for the last 21 years.
Although it must be noted that the government has appointed over 1,000 new allopathic doctors, no appointments of the Ayurveda and Homoeopathy doctors have been made.
They have also requested the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to take necessary steps to open at least 500 government homoeopathic dispensaries and government ayurvedic dispensaries (each) this year and 30 district AYUSH hospitals to propagate the usefulness of the medicine and create new posts for ayurveda and homoeopathy graduates.
Dr Lopamudra Khatoi said that the students will intensify the protests this time in order to get a written assurance from the concerned ministers and will accordingly, arrive at a plan of action.
