The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Medical institute in poor health
By V.P. Prabhakar

VIRTUALLY a Haryana Government baby but autonomous in character, the Panchkula-situated Haryana Institute of Alternative Medicine and Research has miserably failed to achieve its lofty objectives for which it was set up under the chairmanship of the Haryana Governor.

Living on the dole of the Haryana Government, the institute in its nine-year existence continues to face financial constraints due to which it lacks infrastructure and facilities. Its indoor wing, which was constructed keeping in view the various systems of medicine, has remained locked for a number of years. It was only used for some time as the office-cum-OPD section till the OPD wing was got ready.

No separate budget for this institute was provided in the Ayurveda Department though grant-in-aid used to come from this department. There is no clerk or peon and the institute has no telephone either. The releases of grant-in-aid used to be so irregular that sometime staff would not get salaries for two or three months, according to Mr Rakesh Kumar Srivastava, accupressurist.

Moreover, it is situated at the obscure Sector 3 in Panchkula. Hence, not many people are aware of it. There is no indication of this sector on the Shimla-Ambala road. Only a board of the Youth Hostel stands and adjoining to it is the institute. There is no pucca road leading to the Youth Hostel and the institute, both located about 300 metres from the main road.

The council of the institute, which met under the chairmanship of the Governor on December 11, 1998, felt that it had become difficult to run the institute due to financial constraints. However, the project of the institute was very good and it felt that it had the potential to be developed into a higher level research or training institute for various system of medicine in the interest of the people of this area.

It was decided to request the government to take over the institute, retaining its separate identity. It is almost after a year that the government has finally decided to take over the institute. The existing staff of four persons, acupressurist, a homoeopathic medical officer chowkidar and sweeper, would also be taken over.

The Haryana Government on February 18, 1991, constituted the council of the institute with Governor as its Chairman and the Chief Minister as Vice-Chairman. In fact, the brain behind the institute was the then Governor, Mr Dhanik Lal Mandal. The Director of Ayurveda was member-secretary.

The objective of the institute was to provide treatment in various disciplines like naturopathy, herbal medicine, food therapy, acupressure, acupuncture, yoga and magneto-therapy through indoor and outdoor treatment.

It also aimed at propagating the health promotive and educative aspects of these systems by holding short-term treatment-cum-training camps on general and specific health problems. It was to create awareness among the public about the utility of these sciences in healthcare. The institute was to provide training in the system and trained personnel from the institute were to be appointed in other centres in the state.

The Institute was started in a rented building in Saket Hospital, Panchkula. Fifteen acres were acquired from HUDA by the council on a lease-hold basis. Actually it could get 12.5 acres as stone crushers were located on the remaining land.

Four huts with double walls were constructed and this building was inaugurated by Mr Mandal on January 1, 1993. Later, the OPD building was constructed. It has a tubewell and an open-air theatre.

Under the Central Government scheme about 4000 medicinal plants were planted in the area which were looked after the Forest Department. At present not much care is being given to these plants as a result of which it looks like a jungle.

A medical camp was organised from January 1, 1993, to January 12, 1993, by the institute to provide treatment in various disciplines like naturopathy, herbal medicines, food therapy, acupressure, yoga, magneto-therapy, homoeopathy etc. A training camp in acupressure was held in 1993 and 100 persons were given training.

The institute also organised a national congress on alternative systems of medicines in January, 1994, which was inaugurated by Mr Zafar Saifullah, the then Cabinet Secretary, Government of India. At least 70 eminent persons from different disciplines like Ayurveda, Unani, sidha, homoeopathy, naturopathy, yoga, acupressure, acupuntures etc. attended the Congress and recommended syllabus for graduation and post-graduation courses, a code of conduct to promote national health programme and suggestions for popularising alternative systems of medicine.

The holding of the national congress was, perhaps, the biggest function organised by the institute and after that it almost went into oblivion as all activities came to a standstill in the wake of lack of financial support from the state government.

According to Mr Srivastava, at least, 70 patients come to the institute daily. He claims that patients from adjoining villages, Himachal Pradesh and even Delhi come for acupressure treatment.

The Planning Department has agreed to provide an additional amount of Rs 55,84,844 as land cost and Rs 1 lakh as staff salary for 1999-2000 to the institute.

The Finance Department has said that medicinal plants in the Institute will be looked after by the Horticulture Department. All assets of the council and the institute, including land and building, will be transferred to the government.

GND University volunteers for NAAC assessment

Amritsar: Consequent upon the general trend of globalisation of economic activities, the higher education has become an international service. Understandably, concern about quality of higher education and the mechanisms of quality assurance have begun to grow the world over. In line with this global trend, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) was established in 1994 as an apex body to promote and focus on quality consciousness among the institutions of higher learning and to ensure quality assurance.

According to the latest UGC statistics, there are 229 university-level institutions and 9278 colleges, affiliated to various universities and 110 autonomous colleges. About 3,25,000 teachers conduct academic programmers for 6.5 million plus students. The enrolment goes up at the rate of 4.5% each year.

The University Grants Commission at its 338th meeting has resolved that the accreditation and assessment by the NAAC be made mandatory and compulsory to start with for all universities in India. It further decided that all university in India be accredited and assessed.

During the first year of operationalising the instruments and methodology, 30 institutions of higher education i.e. three universities and 27 colleges, were assessed. In spite of extensive efforts taken disseminate NAAC’s mission and its role through a number of awareness activities, it appears that many institutions are still hesitant to come forward to get assessed.

So far, only 37 out of about 160 universities and 200 out of about 9500 colleges that come under the purview of liberal arts and science education have sent in their requests for assessment.

Guru Nanak Dev University is the first university in northern India to volunteer for assessment.

NAAC has the responsibility to assess and accredit public and private institutions of higher learning and grade these subsequently. The NAAC’s process of assessment, leading to accreditation, involves preparation of a self-study report by the institution, its validation by peers and final decision by the council.

The philosophy of the NAAC is ameliorative and enabling rather than punitive, so that all constituencies of institutions of higher education are enabled to utilise their resources, opportunities and capabilities to the maximum.

The NAAC aspires to be a catalyst for achieving a well-functioning, diversified, self-sustaining and self-renewing system of higher education at all levels of teaching, learning and research so that it is equitable, efficient and of high quality and to make the ideas of accountability explicit, supportive and non-threatening.

There are three stages in the process of assessment and accreditation :preparation of a self-study report by the institutions and its submission to the NAAC; validation of the report by in-house analysis and peer team visit to the institution; and final decision of the NAAC based on the report of the peer team.

The accreditation status of the institution will be valid for a period of five yeas and revalidation of accreditation will be initiated after a period of four year. However when an institution gets a D or E grade, it will be either asked to come forward for accreditation after two years without announcing the results or given the option of withdrawing from the process.

The NAAC strives to differentiate between good, better and the best institutions and create quality consciousness without losing sight of the distinctive characteristics of each type of institution. The NAAC believes in self-regulation through self-study and voluntary process to establish hallmark of quality education.

Peer team meeting is neither a fault-finding exercise not an attempt to solve disputes. The entire exercise is focused at rigorous introspection. It is not to be compared with other institutions or with other teaching units, if the performance of a unit is being assessed. Thus the process of accreditation is expected to improve the quality of education.

Higher education is expected to train students in a wide range of academic and professional disciplines of fulfil personal, societal and national needs, and advance knowledge through fundamental and applied research.

India has been concentrating on the quantitative expansion of the higher education network and, understandably did not pay adequate attention o the quality in any concerted way beyond internal checks and balances that one does in any institutional organisational set up.

Now, because of the quantum chance in the socio-economic context the world over, the quality of education has become crucial.

This concern for quality has made everyone focus on ways on ensuring quality of education offered both by existing education institutions and the new ones to be established. Though, the quality of education to be offered by the new institutions could hopefully be ensured through regulatory processes, it is difficult to apply the same strategy for existing ones.

The frame of reference for assessment and accreditation by he NAAC is excellence in education and not minimal standard. The outcome of the process will indicate whether an institution is good or average or not satisfactory.

Financially unsustainable increase in enrolment and precipitous decline in quality make it imperative for the institutions of higher education to ensure the relevance and quality of their programmes and products so that the system becomes capable of self-regulation and self-renewal.