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The Union Ayush Ministry (MoA), which had earlier initiated steps with the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) and the ministry of external affairs (MEA), has sorted out the issues pertaining to visa and travel restrictions to foreign nationals intending to visit India for availing Ayurveda treatments and to resume their course of therapies.
Currently, the travel policies of the Indian government will not affect those foreign nationals who want to come to India on a medical visa or tourist visa to avail Ayurveda treatments from registered health institutions. The Indian embassies in foreign countries will clear the applications and permit them to travel to India for treatment purposes. Now all the hurdles were cleared and any foreign national can come to India for Ayurveda treatments, informed Dr. Rajesh Kotecha, secretary of the union Ayush ministry.
“We have approached the concerned department of the Ministry of External Affairs. Concerned division of the MEA is ensuring that there is no such denial of visa at our missions,” Dr Kotecha informed Pharmabiz.
After the announcement of lockdown in March last year there were restrictions on travel to India on tourist visas and medical visas due to Covid pandemic. These restrictions remained as a bottleneck for people with myriad physical disorders and health issues to come to India for taking treatments from centres of Indian systems, especially to make use of ayurvedic interventions from major ISM hospitals in Kerala. Following this, the association of Ayurveda hospitals and physicians, supported by Ayurveda Medicine Manufacturers Organisation of India (AMMOI), approached the Union Ayush secretary with a request to take up the matter with the MEA and to the MHA for a solution to provide continuous treatment to the foreign patients who have been availing treatments from various institutions in Kerala for long.
The office of the Union Ayush secretary has immediately intervened into the matter and taken up the issue with the concerned divisions in the ministries of external affairs and the home affairs. Along with relaxations made in visa and travel restrictions for various categories of foreign nationals, the embassies abroad were also given directions by the concerned departments in the MEA to permit those people who want to travel to India for getting Ayurveda treatments from hospitals.
Dr Ramanathan, secretary of AMMOI in Kerala had received a letter two months ago from a Russian citizen who wanted to come to Kerala for treatment, which said the Indian embassy in Russia was not considering any Ayurveda medical visa requests. He has forwarded the letter to the Ayush secretary with a request to sort it out with the concerned departments in the MEA and in the MHA. According to him the Ayurveda health centres in Kerala are providing authentic treatment of the highest quality to foreign patients some of whom need treatments on a regular basis in order to complete their treatment schedule.
When contacted, Dr.Kotecha said now the route is cleared for all to travel to India for the purpose of Ayurveda treatment with a specific request. “The issue was taken up and that person can request for a visa for Ayurveda treatments,” he said in response to the letter of the Russian citizen.
Apart from demanding for lifting travel restrictions for patients of continuous treatment schedule, AMMOI has wanted the ministry of Ayush to liberalize the travel policy on international medical travellers and on the quarantine norms. The association wanted to give visas for Ayurveda treatments on production of Covid negative certificates from the medical departments of the originating countries.
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