Tap opportunities in wellness tourism, CM tells homeopaths

Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said Goa has immense scope for wellness tourism even as he urged Goans to grab the opportunity before people from other states and countries do.
At a function held to celebrate World Home-opathy Day, he appealed to homeopaths to collaborate with different segments of the hospitality industry to set up wellness centres. He also assured them of government assistance. “Merely practising homeopathy will not help. One should try to market it,” he said.
The chief minister’s statements, incidentally, come in the backdrop of the immense pressure the government has been experiencing lately in creating job opportunities for physicians of alternative medicine that pass out each year. The All India Institute of Ayurveda at Dhargalim, which began this year, is only expected to add to these numbers.
While many physicians have been absorbed in the state health services over the past few years, a majority have been appointed on contract basis. “The contractual doctors will subsequently want to be regularised,” a senior health official said.
Ayurvedic and homeopathic physicians also join private hospitals as residents, but the salary they earn is less than what an allopathic physician commands when appointed for the same duties, the health official said.
By diversifying, especially in the wellness segment, the chief minister said dependence of ayurvedic and homeopathic physicians on the government for jobs would reduce.
Chairman of the Goa Board of Homeopathy, Bipan Salkar, said homeopathic medicines do not have side effects and have to be integrated into the mainstream medicine system for a healthier and sustainable future.
Sawant also launched a website of the Goa Board of Homeopathy. Doctors Narayan Shirodkar and Malini Desai were felicitated for their contribution.
Homeopathic physicians Shekhar Shetye, Vijaylaxmi Desai, Marilyn Telles, Swati Desai, Domnic D’Souza, Pallavi Kanekar, Reena Parab, Sweta Gandhi and Sphandhan Faldesai, all posted at government health centres, were applauded for creating awareness about homeopathy.
World Homeopathy Day is observed every year on April 10, the birth anniversary of the founder of homeopathy, Dr Samuel Hahnemann.