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Minutes of the First Meeting of the High Powered Advisory Group on Mainstreaming the Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy into the Health System held on 24th October 2000 |
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Dr.
D.N. Tiwari, Member, Planning Commission, began by tracing the transition
of the family planning programme from 1991 to the present reproductive
and child health and stressed on the need to concentrate on the key
indicators like IMR, MMR, TFR as also the strategies required for
meeting the unmet needs for contraception. In view of the constraints in
meeting the full requirements on the allopathic side he highlighted
the need to make use of the vast potential of ISM&H to ensure
integrated delivery of services.
RCH does not differentiate between Allopathy, Ayurved or Unani. One is the written part like
Ayurveda, Unani, Siddhi, Naturopathy and Homeopathy the other is the
oral part where oral traditions are practices and the figure can be
anything from 10 to 15 lakhs.
On the whole about 21 lakh people are practising one way or
the other for delivering services. Dr. Tiwari referred to a conference
held in 1968 when 400 claims were taken for consideration and later
on 44 claims admitted as also subjected to clinical scrutiny. Some of these are accepted not
only in India, but also in other parts of the world. There is a probability some time
in the near future that these 44 claims which have been listed may
be acknowledged.
Mention was also made that the conference identified a group
of 3000 experts. Though
out of 10000 claims 2000 claims were admitted so far, not a single
claim has been tried on any one or
put to clinical scrutiny.
He also circulated a list of 13 species of medicinal plans
that are very useful for RCH purposes and suggested that we may utilise
the vast infrastructure of the ISM&H Department as already brought
out in the presentation. There
were 154 colleges in Ayurved and this branch of medicine was gaining
acceptance around the world. Dr.
K. Venkatasubramaniam, Member (Health), Planning Commission, referred
to the importance behind the setting up of this group and is happy
that the problems at hand will be looked at in a more integrated manner.
He also mentioned that the U.S. Government has recently set
up a Commission on alternative systems of medicine and he made a plea
for realising the worth of the Indian System of Medicine in a more
optimal way before the west showed us the way. Ms.
Shailaja Chandra, Secretary, Deptt. of ISM&H, mentioned to the
quick survey which had been carried out by the Department of ISM&H
which had brought out many interesting facts. She then referred to the terms
of reference of this high powered group and suggested that a sub-group
could be constituted to :
Certain
encouraging steps had
already been taken since ISM&H practitioners had strated using
20 to 25 % allopathic drugs and methods in their practices and homeopathy
drugs were now being used in ANM’s kits. She also referred to the need
for the review of a recent Supreme Court Judgement. Shri
A.R. Nanda, Secretary, Department of Family Welfare, was in agreement
that a sub-group could be constituted with a definite time frame to
look into the issues that would help in mainstreaming the ISM&H
into the mainstream. He
explained about the high turn out indicating a high unmet need, at
the health melas in Mathura and Kargil where 15,000 and 34,000 people
respectively attended the camps. He suggested that ISM&H practitioners
could be used in these camps as well. Shri Nanda also suggested that
ISM&H practitioners be included in the district health societies
that have been set up in all districts. He also suggested that under the
RCH research projects the Department could study the 13 medicinal
plants mentioned by Dr. Tiwari.
He concluded by making a plea for looking at the training programme
of both allopathic doctors and ISM&H doctors so as to introduce
some aspects of each of their systems into each others training syllabi. Shri
J.A. Chowdhury, Health Secretary agreed that the health care needs
of the country cannot be met by the allopathic system and felt that
we should use the existing ISM&H systems to increase the outreach
for meeting the needs of the people. He prefaced his remarks by saying
that though some of these may be his personal views, the traiditional
systems are well established and have undergone the longest clinical
trials ever by virtue of having been in existence for a long period
of time. He suggested
that besides adopting some procedures and drugs the ISM&H practitioners
must be guided by a regulatory body. The National Health System was
likely to be greatly benefitted, if ISM&H could be used to undertake
standard regimes for major disease control programmes like Malaria,
TB as also other minor procedures.
He shared an important though commonly known information that
earlier the drug controller was used to testing drugs which had already
been tested abroad and did not, therefore, require a very elaborate
process of testing. However,
as far as ISM&H drugs were concerned, he admitted that they do
not have much experience and would need to acquire this through training
etc. Dr.
S.P. Agarwal, DG, DGHS, felt that ISM&H could be used effectively for surveillance.
He further emphasised the need for setting up of the sub-group
to look into the details. When
requested to elaborate he stated that this sub-group could consist
of representative of Health, Family Welfare and Indian System of Medicine
as suggested by Secretary, ISM&H.
He made a general suggestion that Ayurvedic practitioners could
be paid higher salaries in order to attract them in large numbers
and there could be some high level posts reserved for them to increase
the social value of this branch of medicine.
He advocated that ISM clinics and Allopathic clinics could
be brought under one roof as has been tried out in hospitals like
Safdarjung and RML. Vaid
Devendra Triguna mentioned that there is one Ayurvedic doctor in nearly
every village and suggested utilising them for the benefit of the
masses. Their skills
may need to be upgraded and this alongwith upgradation of the skills
of village dais could be used very effectively especially in backward
areas and remote villages. Dr.
Darshan Shankar mentioned that there is a tremendous wave coming from
outside India which is promoting Indian systems of medicine and we
in India should also take advantage of our own heritage, culture and
knowledge. He had some
reservations about fundamental integration of the two systems i.e.
Indian systems and the modern system of medicine. He, however, felt that functional
integration like has been done in China is a possibility and should
be encouraged for the reproductive and child health programme.
Dr. Shankar advocated for a policy on oral medicine and fold
traditions which include bone setters, birth attendants, heelers of
poison etc. He concluded by mentioning that
there is need to identify a package that the Indian systems of medicine
can suggest to be mainstreamed with the modern system of medicine. Ms.
Vasantha Muthuswamy, DDG, ICMR mentioned that they have found a number
of positive leads in their trails of ISM drugs and will extend all
cooperation in this noble endeavour. She mentioned about the Centre
for Advance Research in Mumbai where doctors from Ayurvedic as well
as Allopathic systems were exposed to each other systems, during their
training. Shri
Dilip Kumar of the Indian Nursing Council mentioned that they are
going to revise the syllabus to include some aspects of ISM, in consultation
with the Department. The
need for careful integration was clearly articulated. Shri
Kaushal Kumar, UCSD felt that the RCH programme was a very progressive
programme which is now being implemented partly through NGOs.
He mentioned that his NGO had catered to 58000 patients last
year during the Kumb mela. He suggested allotment of 2 to
5 villages to each NGO for complete delivery of health care. Mrs.
Krishna Singh, Member Secretary, NCP: As several Members had emphasised
the need for setting up of a sub-group this would be put up for consideration
of the Vice-Chairman of the National Commission on Population who
is also the Chairman of this Advisory Group. The terms of reference would also
be considered keeping in view the suggestions of the Members. To a pointed reference whether
the sub-group would cover all areas of concern of the high powered
advisory group, she clarified that this would depend on the terms
of reference of the sub-group.
There was a need for ensuring that the recommendations of the
sub-group once constituted would be placed for consideration of the
high powered advisory group.
The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by the Joint Secretary,
National Commission on Population.
LIST OF
PARTICIPANTS WHO ATTENDED THE MEETING
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