KAUMARACON 2026: Ayurveda paediatrics conference opens at AIIA with Vice-President

KAUMARACON 2026, an international conference on Kaumarabhritya, the branch of Ayurveda that deals with the health of children, opens today, Thursday, 15 October 2026, at the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) in New Delhi. The three-day meeting runs until 17 October at the institute's Sarita Vihar campus. Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan is the chief guest at the inaugural session, and Prataprao Jadhav, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ayush and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, is the guest of honour. The organisers expect more than 500 participants, with international experts joining online, and more than 175 scientific papers are due to be presented.

Kaumarabhritya is one of the eight classical branches of Ayurveda. It covers the care of newborns and children, from feeding and growth to common illnesses. Today it is taught as a specialty in Ayurveda colleges, and hospitals such as AIIA run dedicated children's outpatient services under it.

A conference of this size matters because child health is where the demand for evidence is strongest. Parents and doctors need to know which treatments are safe for children, in what doses, and how they compare with modern care. More than 175 papers give researchers a chance to share clinical results and trial designs, and to have them questioned by peers. For a traditional system that is often asked to prove its claims, open presentation and critique of studies is the route to wider acceptance.

The presence of the Vice-President and the Ayush Minister signals the government's continued support for Ayush institutions. AIIA, an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Ayush, has hosted such meetings before, including its first international conference, AROHA, in October 2024. The conference closes on 17 October, the day AIIA marks its foundation day.

For families, the practical takeaway is caution as well as interest. Ayurveda paediatrics is a qualified medical specialty, and treatment for children should come from a registered practitioner, not from self-medication or online remedies.

Short-term: Researchers, teachers and students of Ayurveda paediatrics will present and discuss new studies over three days, with international experts taking part online.

Long-term: Regular meetings of this kind can push the specialty towards standard treatment protocols and better-designed trials for children, which doctors and regulators need before therapies are widely adopted.

Who is affected: Ayurveda doctors and students specialising in child health, parents who use Ayurvedic care for their children, researchers in integrative paediatrics, and the institutions that train practitioners.

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