Women's participation in Ayurveda and other AYUSH professions remains skewed. Discuss the challenges and suggest measures for greater gender inclusion.

Q. Women's participation in Ayurveda and other AYUSH professions remains skewed. Discuss the challenges and suggest measures for greater gender inclusion. (15 marks, 250-350 words)

Ayurveda draws women in large numbers as students, yet their presence thins at surgical, research, regulatory and leadership levels. The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) study released at Saushrutam 2026, "Evaluation of Professional Career of Ayurveda Female Graduates", has now officially documented this gap [1].

Challenges to women's participation - Career discontinuity after graduation: the NCISM study, released by the President at AIIA, was cited by the AYUSH Minister to flag the specific hurdles women Ayurvedic professionals face in sustaining practice [1]. - Clustering away from surgical streams: fields like Shalya Tantra (Ayurvedic surgery) — the very theme of Saushrutam — demand long operative training and mentorship, which career breaks and caregiving burdens interrupt [1]. - Weak institutional support: hostel, crèche, night-duty and safety infrastructure in many AYUSH colleges lags that of allopathic institutions. - Regulatory blind spot: the NCISM Act, 2020 framework standardises education and practice but carries no explicit gender-inclusion mandate [3][4]. - Informalisation: many women graduates absorb into low-paid wellness, spa and panchakarma work outside formal clinical or research career ladders.

Measures for greater gender inclusion - Act on the evidence: convert the NCISM study's findings into regulatory norms — gender audits of colleges, and re-entry/bridge courses for graduates returning after breaks [1][3]. - Mentorship in surgical specialities: reserved fellowship and observership slots for women in Shalya Tantra at apex bodies like AIIA, India's flagship Ayurveda institute [5]. - Access to advanced research platforms: draw women into integrative research using facilities such as AIIA's new AI-enabled 3 Tesla MRI, moving them from practice to evidence generation [1]. - Global exposure: dedicated women's participation quotas in international AYUSH platforms — Saushrutam 2026 alone hosted experts from eight countries besides India [2]. - Livelihood linkage: integrate women's SHGs into medicinal-plant cultivation, aligning with the call to protect biodiversity as Ayurveda's raw-material base [1].

Gender inclusion in AYUSH is not welfare but a workforce imperative: evidence-based Ayurveda cannot be built on half its talent. Institutionalising the NCISM study's findings within the NCISM Act architecture would advance both SDG-5 and India's ambition of globally credible traditional medicine.

(~330 words)

Sources: 1. PIB — President Droupadi Murmu inaugurates 'Saushrutam 2026'; calls for integration of traditional wisdom with modern science — NCISM study on women Ayurveda graduates released, challenges to women professionals, AI-enabled 3 Tesla MRI facility, biodiversity call 2. PIB — All India Institute of Ayurveda successfully concludes three-day international seminar 'Saushrutam 2026' — international participation from Thailand, Israel, Austria, UK, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal and Greece 3. National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) — statutory regulator for Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani education and practice 4. PRS Legislative Research — The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill, 2019 — statutory framework enacted as the NCISM Act, 2020 5. All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi — apex Ayurveda institute under the Ministry of AYUSH