What ails Ayush institutions? 45% vacant posts
NEW DELHI: Responding to questions raise in Parliament the Ministry replied that Indias AYUSH sector, the government arm for traditional and alternative medicine, is running with nearly half of its posts unfilled across key national institutes. Of 5,553 sanctioned posts at 19 autonomous bodies, about 2,512 are vacant and only 3,041 are currently filled, leaving a vacancy rate of roughly 45 per cent nationwide, the Ministry of AYUSH told Parliament on 5 December 2025. The Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfares 165th Report, published by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat on 12 March 2025 and laid before the Lok Sabha the same day, had earlier highlighted thousands of unfilled positions across research, academic, technical and paramedical cadres in AYUSH bodies. The largest research body, the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) in New Delhi, has the most unfilled posts with 903 vacancies out of 1,708 sanctioned, meaning less than half the positions are occupied. Other research councils and institutes show similar shortfalls. The Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA) in Jamnagar is operating with nearly 60 per cent of its posts vacant, while the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) in New Delhi has close to 193 unfilled positions. In the North-East, the North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda & Folk Medicine Research (NEIAFMR) at Pasighat has 76 out of 90 posts vacant and the North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy (NEIAH) in Shillong is short-staffed by more than a third. The ministry noted that autonomous bodies follow their own recruitment rules and procedures and have been filling gaps temporarily by hiring contractual staff. The absence of a central time-bound plan for regular recruitment was evident in the reply. Experts outside Parliament have also pointed to serious staff deficits in autonomous government health bodies in India, including AYUSH, with shortages affecting operations and service delivery. Separation between policy framing at the centre and implementation at institute level has been flagged in media reports.
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