Madhya Pradesh First State To Introduce Hindi Textbooks For BUMS Students

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): In a move aimed at making Unani medical education more accessible, Madhya Pradesh will become the first state in India to provide Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery (BUMS) textbooks in Hindi.

The initiative comes after a growing number of students without an Urdu background opted for the BUMS course at the state's only Government Unani Medical College in Bhopal.

In the 2025-26 academic session, 15 non-Urdu-speaking students secured admission out of the total 75 seats. Earlier, seven such students enrolled in both the 2024-25 and 2023-24 academic sessions.

Since BUMS textbooks are currently available only in Urdu, the state government has decided to translate them into Hindi from the current academic session to help students study more effectively.

Officials from the AYUSH Department said the move is also expected to improve representation from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC).

According to the department, many Unani doctor posts remain vacant because eligible candidates from these categories are often unavailable. Most of the new non-Urdu-speaking students belong to these communities.

The increase in admissions follows a change in the Central Government's admission rules introduced after the 2022-23 academic session.

Under the revised norms, studying Urdu in Class 10 is no longer mandatory for admission to the Unani medical course.

Madhya Pradesh has only one government Unani medical college, located in Bhopal, with 75 undergraduate seats.

The state also has three private Unani colleges in Indore, Dewas and Burhanpur, offering a combined total of 152 seats.

Unani medicine is one of the world's oldest systems of medicine and is believed to have originated in ancient Greece around 2,500 years ago. It later developed in Persia and the Arab world before reaching India around the 11th and 12th centuries.

The system is recognised by the Government of India and is based on maintaining the balance of four bodily humours: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile.

Treatment mainly includes diet, medicines, massage, exercise and steam therapy.