The career dreams of hundreds of young Ayurveda medical doctors and PSC rank holders in the State appear to have been dealt a body blow by an interim order of the Kerala Administrative Tribunal that extended the retirement age of a few serving Ayurveda Medical Officers, thereby effectively stopping new recruitment for the next four years.
The issue assumes more gravity, because no new post has been created in the parent department, the Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM), in the past 10 years. This interim order of the KAT, which extends the service of a few, could adversely impact the fate of hundreds of Homoeo medical graduates also.
Unlike the modern medicine sector, where there are plenty of work opportunities in the public as well as private sector, for over 2,000 Ayurveda students who pass out from some 20 Ayurveda institutions in the State, their most lucrative job prospects are confined to the handful of retirement vacancies that come up off and on in the department.
