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| An Abandoned Veterinary Hospital in Assam Photo Credit : assam.news18.com |
It may be said that formal veterinary education in India began in 1862 with the establishment of an army veterinary school in Pune. The first civil veterinary school was started in Babugarh (Hapur), in Uttar Pradesh, in 1877. With the independence of India, a series of agricultural universities were established beginning in 1960. The separate universities for veterinary and animal sciences, including fisheries, started at Tamil Nadu in Madras in 1989.
According to The Indian Express report, India currently has 55 veterinary colleges. "There are 63,000 registered veterinarians today, whereas the requirement is between 1.1 - 1.2 lakh,” estimates Umesh Chandra Sharma, president, Veterinary Council of India (VCI).
The Animal Husbandry (AH) and Veterinary Department of Assam was established in 1905. The first College of Veterinary Science was established in 18th August 1948 at Nagaon as the erstwhile Assam Veterinary College.
The recent livestock census said that Assam has 18.09 million livestock including 10.90 million cattles, 0.43 million buffaloes, 0.34 million sheeps, 4.32 million goats and 2.10 million pigs. To look after the health and hygiene of such a huge number of livestock, the need of sufficient number of veterinarians is so vital. Afterall, livestock plays an important role in Indian economy. This sector contributes 4.11% of the total GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and 25.6% of total Agriculture GDP.
According to National Commission on Agriculture 1976, Assam needs one veterinarian for 5000 livestock. In contrast to that Assam has now only one veterinarian against 30,000 livestock. Around 2500 veterinarians are needed in Assam but currently 1003 posts of Veterinary Officers (VO) are available in the department from which only 830 posts of VO were appointed and the rest are vacant. All these posts were created three to four decades earlier and no new posts were created since then. In the state, currently, around 700-800 veterinarians are unemployed in the government sector.
In Assam, According to Vet roadmap workforce analysis (2018), superannuation projections till 2030 shows that 72% (568 out of 788) of the present workforce of the department are going to retire by the end of 2030. So it is the need of the hour to create sufficient number of posts for veterinarians to handle the massive need of livestock production and treatment. Now is the time to start a workforce development strategy and implement it effectively as soon as possible.
According to The Assam Tribune report, at present, 200 posts of veterinary officers (VO), 310 posts of veterinary field assistants, around 225 grade III posts and 650 grade IV posts are lying vacant in the department.
"The difference between the livestock population and the number of veterinarians available in the field is very large. So in most cases, veterinarians field assistants are playing the role of veterinarians in Assam. This leads to deficient treatment of the animals causing complications and even deaths in some cases," a student of Lakhimpur College of Veterinary Science told Fourlines Journal.
According to The Assam Tribune, May 19 report, the veterinary department managed to spend only 33% of the total budget allocation in the last financial year.
In the Niti Aayog's Sustainable Development goals (SDG) India Index, which shows the progress made by states and Union Territories towards implementing the 2030 SDG targets, Assam's rank slipped from 23 in the previous year to 26 (just above Bihar and Jharkhand) this year. This poor ranking is partly due to the negligence of the authority in the agriculture and livestock division.
Atul Bora (Minister for Agriculture and Veterinary) with officials of the veterinary and dairy development departments passed a resolution to set up a 'College of Dairy Technology' and an 'Assam Veterinary and Livestock University' in the state. "After completion of all the formalities, the financial department turned down both the proposals due to lack of adequate manpower in the department," sources in the Veterinary Department told The Assam Tribune.
"Assam is producing around 150 veterinarians each year through the Lakhimpur College of Veterinary Science and the College of Veterinary Science, Khanapara. Due to minimal scope in the government sector of the state, most of the veterinary doctors works in many private firms outside the state. This is a typical example of brain drain," Dr. Phanidhar Mili of College of Veterinary Science, Khanapara told Fourlines Journal.
According to The Fourlines Journal report, a section of veterinary students of Assam had started a twitter storm from June 4 demanding appointment of veterinary doctors, creation of more veterinary officers' (VO) posts and regularisation of veterinary officer (VO) appointments. The online movement ran every day till June 16.
"After studying for 5 years and 5 months, the veterinary doctors, after getting graduation degrees don't usually have any hope for employment in the government sector. So, after studying for such a long time, the veterinarians, in search of livelihood, usually opens private clinics but largely they move to another states of the country. They travel mostly to Gujarat and West Bengal for employment," Dr. Iqbal Salik Minhaz, Master of Veterinary Science (MVSc) scholar told Fourlines Journal.
"The recent upsurge of Lumpy Skin Disease of cattle, African Swine Fever (ASF) of pigs and Goat Plague has shattered the livelihood of many poor farmers of the state and this is mainly due to the lack of sufficient numbers of veterinarians in the state," Dr. Debangana Choudhury of Veterinary Welfare Forum of Assam told NewzNow. "It is not just a problem of employment of the veterinarians but it is also a huge problem for the overall animal husbandry and biodiversity in general," she added.
"Less number of vetenarians also resulted in lack of knowledge and awareness in the people who earns livelihood from livestock. Antibiotics are given in increased amount to the livestock and are not given in appropriate dose or for right duration. This leads to the formation of anti-microbial resistance in microbes present inside the livestock. When this happens, the antibiotics can no longer kill the microbes and hence the disease of the livestock cannot be treated. Moreover, the residue of antibiotics given to animals can transfer into the humans through consumption of livestock products like milk and meat. So, humans will also slowly develop resistance against antibiotics. According to a report of BBC News (11 December 2014) currently 700000 deaths of humans are happening each year due to anti-microbial resistance and it will increase upto 10 million by 2050," Dr. Hanidul Hoque (MVSc scholar, Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding) told Fourlines Journal.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a partner of One Health framework. One Health is the integrative effort of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals, and the environment. The goal of One Health is to address current and potential health and welfare issues through collaboration among all the health sciences — veterinary medicine, human medicine, environmental science, and public health. Thus the veterinary science is an integral part of One Health and therefore due importance should be given to areas such as food safety, zoonotic disease, and anti-microbial resistance. To attain the One Health objectives in true sense, Assam needs to give necessary importance for the development of Veterinary Science and sufficient recruitment of veterinary workforce should be done.
"Atul Bora, Minister for Agriculture and Veterinary of Assam Government should give due importance to this critical situation immediately. Sufficient number of posts for veterinarians should be allotted without delay and negligence. In every district, diagnostic lab and dispensaries should be increased. Mobile veterinary clinic should also be formed since some big animals cannot be transferred to long distances for treatment. The dilapidated veterinary hospitals should be revived since the infrastructure of the hospitals are in extreme miserable conditions and new hospitals and clinics should be made. And most importantly immediate cadre review of veterinarian posts in Assam should be done. This is my request and appeal to the Veterinary Minister, Atul Bora as well as to the Chief Minister of Assam, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma. Only then the central government's slogan of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) and idea of Double Farmers' Income will be properly implemented," a student of College of Veterinary Science, Khanapara told Fourlines Journal.
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