"The Struggles of Physiotherapy in India: A Degree with No Promise"

When i failed in my NEET UG, due to some family reasons i started looking for other allied medicine related courses. Almost all of them like homeopathy, unani, ayurveda and all that was jackshit as their was no scientific studies being pursued in those fields for validation through data. I found out physiotherapy as one which was scientific as well as well respected in many developed parts of world.

The degree is of 4 and half years, which i guess is not completely worth it as in my opinion it could have been completed in 3 years or even less.

In my 4 years i spent around 4 lacs in academics, and as soon as i came close to get a job, i found out freshers are only earning 15k-18k Per month for more number of hours and lesser holidays as compared to others. I know people who are even working on 10k a month. People who reach 30-40k a month are usually experienced in 5-10 years of range.

Their are no govt regulations towards the profession, just an association which is kindof a self claimed autonomous body. Most of the physios will use a Dr. Prefix, but they dont see how legally they cannot use that. Illiterate People do therapies in 100-200 rupees per session as well, where they dont even know what they are doing, they just use some machines which if to be honest anyone with a week of training can use. Such people have ruined the profession so hard that even if someone wants to learn and treat patients well enough, they have got zero incentive to do so.

In the west, with regulations, infrastructure and even more awareness and education, it is a well respected and well earning profession, but here in india it is a big struggle, and thats why people who are better in their work prefer to migrate to canada/USA/australia/UK/new zealand. These leaves most of the hopeless cases here, damaging more of the credibility.

Hospitals generally outsource their physical therapy setups, and these people control a lot of incentive for younger physical therapists. They dont pay easily and as a result even good people drift away with time. Infact i have yet only heard one hospital in southern india which even pays a stipend during internship(that too 1500 rs only). Rest of the hospitals, especially in NCR region charge around 15k for a six month internship, 'Matlab kaam bhi mai hi karu aur paisa bhi mai hi doon'.

While this is indeed an important profession for medicine, the struggles such as direct comparison with 'pehelwan' and likely hokums have been so derogatory that folks with good skills are almost done with their patience.

I am finally driving away from this profession soon enough to find something where i can be financially more secure as well as passionate at the same time.