AYUSH and Alternative Medicine

AYUSH covers Ayurveda, Yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy. These are full professional medical degrees with their own regulatory councils, their own registration and their own defined practice rights — not short courses or add-ons.

The thing families most often get wrong. NEET is required. Admission to BAMS, BHMS, BUMS and BSMS runs through the same NEET UG examination and counselling process as MBBS. A great many students take up AYUSH believing it is the route that avoids NEET, find out after Class 12 that it is not, and lose a year. If you are considering these degrees, you are sitting NEET. Plan accordingly from Class 11.

The courses. BAMS in Ayurveda, BHMS in homoeopathy, BUMS in Unani and BSMS in Siddha, each five and a half years including internship. BNYS in naturopathy and yogic sciences follows a similar length. Postgraduate specialisation runs through AIAPGET, conducted by NTA.

Where the work is. Independent clinical practice, which is where most graduates end up; AYUSH hospitals and dispensaries, including posts in the national health programmes; medical officer positions in state AYUSH departments, recruited by public service commissions; the Ayurvedic and herbal pharmaceutical industry in product development, quality and regulatory roles; wellness resorts and the therapeutic side of the wellness sector; and teaching and research in AYUSH colleges.

The honest part. Practice rights differ by state and have been legally contested, particularly around which procedures and allopathic medicines an AYUSH graduate may use. Check the current position in the state you intend to practise in rather than assuming, because it varies and it changes. Building a private practice takes years of local reputation, as it does for any clinician. And a substantial share of graduates work in pharma, wellness or administration rather than clinically — worth knowing before you commit five and a half years and the fees that come with them.