The Hindu : New Delhi News : Total health care under one roof

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 20, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Total health care under one roof

Aarti Dhar

Alternate systems of medicine to integrate with allopathy

NEW DELHI: The Indian systems of medicine form an integral part of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday. The Ministry has already decided to impart adequate field training to allopathic practitioners and include AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy) modules in the MBBS curriculum.

The Ministry believes providing facilities of alternate systems of medicine under a common roof with conventional medical facilities, particularly at primary health care level, would be more meaningful to health delivery and comprehensive health care. Integration of facilities of different medical systems is not only expected to enhance the population coverage for comprehensive health care but will also help to meet many unmet needs of the health care.

In this context, the Department of AYUSH under the Health Ministry is in the process of establishing dispensaries and yoga units and supplementing the efforts of State Government. In fact, the Ministry attributes improved health indices of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to greater use of Ayurveda, Siddha and Homeopathy.

There are many areas in the country, where AYUSH remedies and practices are the sole resource of health care due to social, physical and financial reasons and hence its use needs to be encouraged. Since AYUSH systems make use of natural raw materials for preparation of medicines and are holistic in nature, they are considered safe, cost-effective, time-tested and eco-friendly.

According to the Department of AYUSH, about 70 per cent people use traditional medicines for health care. While Ayurveda is popular in Kerala, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Orissa, Unani system prevails in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan. Siddha system is also well-established in Tamil Nadu.

Under the National Rural Health Mission, AYUSH dispensaries will be relocated under the Primary Health Centres (PHC) with each having at least one AYUSH doctor, one pharmacist, and one multi-purpose worker. All new PHCs will have in-built AYUSH units. This will be followed by specialised AYUSH facilities at Community Health Centres and district hospitals. Adequate funds will be made available under Centrally-sponsored scheme to ensure AYUSH drugs and establishment of clinics and specialised facilities.

As far as the infrastructure is concerned, there are 23 State Directorates, 22 State Councils or Boards, 6,95,024 registered practitioners and 457 AYUSH colleges in the country. The number of Post-Graduate colleges is 98, hospitals 3,100 and dispensaries 22,300 besides 9,257 licensed pharmacies.

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