Hyderabad: About 40 students whose mother tongue is not Urdu are doing their Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery course, which is imparted only in Urdu, at the Government Nizamia Tibbi College at Charminar.
Forty-two colleges all over India offer the course, including the Nizamia Tibbi College and Global Unani College for Women in the state. The Central Research Institute of Unani Medicine in the city imparts post-graduate courses in two streams of Unani.
Al-Aarif Unani Medical College, a college in the private sector, could not get permission this year from the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM).
A candidate seeking admission to the ‘Kamil-e-Tib-wa-Jarahat’ must have passed Intermediate and Class 10 with Urdu, Arabic or Persian as a subject, or clear the Urdu test in the entrance examination. Study centres run by the social welfare department provide special coaching to non-Urdu speaking students to learn the language and take the course.
Nizamia Tibbi College principal Dr Shahzadi Sultana said, “Our college is granted permission to admit 75 students per year in the undergraduate course, 34+2 seats are allowed in PG courses in 5 streams.”
Apart students from other states, those from abroad are studying in the college, Dr Sultana said. Two seats are reserved for nominees of the Centre and one for a candidate of the BIMSTEC countries — Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan.
Dr Pradula Pratibha, a Unani medical officer who is doing her post-graduate course in social and preventive medical cure at the Nizamia Tibbi College as a service candidate, said, “My mother who is a nurse encouraged me to opt for Unani, because I wanted to do something different.”
She said that before joining the course she could not even recognise the alphabets of Urdu. “When I came to know that Urdu is compulsory for this course I started learning the language. Now I not only read and write Urdu but also understand the medical terminology in Urdu without any difficulty.”
