Seventy years after physiotherapists first organised themselves into a national body, Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda used the opening of a landmark regional conference to reaffirm the government's commitment to strengthening India's allied health workforce — placing physiotherapy squarely at the centre of the country's patient-centred care agenda.

Asia's physiotherapy community converges at Yashobhoomi

The Asia Western Pacific Region Conference 2026 opened on 26 September at Yashobhoomi, New Delhi, drawing thousands of physiotherapists, healthcare professionals, academicians, and policymakers from India and abroad. The two-day gathering, running through 27 September, is hosted by the Indian Association of Physiotherapists (IAP) — the professional body that marks its 70th year of existence this year. Conferences of this scale serve as alignment platforms between domestic standards and international bodies, and New Delhi's turn as host signals India's growing weight in the global allied-health conversation.

From margin to mainstream — 70 years of IAP

The IAP's seven-decade journey mirrors India's own evolution in healthcare thinking: from a system dominated almost entirely by curative, hospital-based medicine to one that now recognises rehabilitation and functional recovery as essential, not optional. National Health Policy 2017 formally called for the expansion and regulation of allied health professionals, and the Ayushman Bharat programme, launched in 2018, embedded rehabilitation services within health and wellness centres across the country. Each step widened the role physiotherapists play — from post-surgical recovery wards to primary care centres in tier-2 cities and beyond.

The workforce gap physiotherapy must close

India's non-communicable disease burden — from stroke and orthopaedic injuries to neurological conditions and post-COVID fatigue — has driven demand for rehabilitation services to a point where supply visibly lags. Integrating physiotherapists into public health delivery has become a structural necessity, not a policy nicety. Nadda's remarks, invoking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'visionary leadership,' signal that workforce expansion in this cadre is not a peripheral concern — it feeds directly into the administration's stated goal of a multi-disciplinary, inclusive health system. Watchers of the health ministry will track whether the conference produces concrete follow-through: curriculum standardisation, recruitment under central schemes, or integration with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

Seventy years in, Indian physiotherapy is no longer asking for a seat at the healthcare table — it is being asked to help build it. The question now is how fast the policy architecture catches up with the demand.