All India Occupational therapists’ association (AIOTA) President Dr. Anil Srivastava today urged Government to include Occupational Therapy (OT) in key policies such as the National Health Policy, Rural Health program, Clinical Establishment Act, National Education Policy in order to restrain the migration of qualified Occupational therapists to overseas.
Addressing a press conference here today, Dr. Anil K Srivastava said that OT as a profession lacks scope for development in India due to poor social and economic awareness, despite it plays an integral role in the field of modern healthcare.
Speaking about the multifaceted issues faced by occupational therapists across the country, Dr. Srivastava said, “There is not enough awareness about occupational therapy in India which restricts the consumers of this service. There is a dire need for a central council for occupational therapy for standardization of practice parameters, educational policies and to prevent all kinds of fraudulent activities.” He informed that currently, there are approximately 45,000 qualified occupational therapists in India and around 2.5 lakh patients are handled by OTs in India per day. However, more than 25-30% of them have migrated to overseas countries owing to inadequate lucrative opportunities in both government and private sector.
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