NITI Aayog Releases a Compendium of Ayush-Based Practices from States & UTs

NITI Aayog released a compendium of Ayush-based practices from states and union territories, outlining various Ayush-based initiatives and practices adopted by Indian states and union territories to contain and manage the COVID-19 outbreak.

Suman Bery, Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog, and Dr. Munjpara Mahendrabhai Kalubhai, Minister of State for Ayush and WCD, jointly released the compendium. Dr. V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, and officials from NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Ayush also attended the event.

Pandemic has been causing an unprecedented public health crisis in the world since the year 2020. The Union Government has worked in partnership with the states and union territories to manage the COVID-19 outbreak in India. State/UT Ayush Departments have joined forces with State Health Departments to strengthen India's fight against COVID-19. Ayush is becoming more visible, and he must maintain momentum and credibility.

"It is critical to communicate the lessons learned from the COVID-19 outbreak testing times about how Ayush practices implemented at the national and state levels benefited people." The compendium contains information on practices used by various Indian states and union territories to strengthen the country's fight against COVID-19 by utilizing Ayush's resources and interventions. I am confident that this document will be a valuable resource for stakeholders from other countries with a strong network of traditional medicine systems. It will help us fight COVID-19 and other epidemics and pandemics in the future," stated NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Suman Bery in his message.

"In India, Ayush systems, along with the modern medicine system, have played an active role on multiple fronts in addressing the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic." "I hope that the collective efforts of traditional and conventional healthcare systems will pave the way for the world by providing a holistic healthcare system model," said Dr. Munjpara Mahendrabhai Kalubhai, Minister of State for Ayush, at the release of the compendium.

"I am hopeful that the practices documented in this compendium will be useful to address any future surge of the pandemic and also serve as a model of an integrative approach to health action," said NITI Aayog Member Dr. V K Paul in his message. NITI Aayog reached out to all State Governments and administrations of Union territories in order to compile a list of Ayush-based practices.

The practices in the compendium have been divided into five categories: I Overview and objectives of practices adopted by states/UTs (ii) Ayush Human Resource and infrastructure (iii) Interventions and Initiatives (iv) Digital Platform and Tele-medicine (v) Issues that have occurred or are being addressed A summary of the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India guidelines, and initiatives is also included in the compendium.

According to the report, traditional healthcare systems in the country should be strengthened further. Integrating evidence-based Ayush services into the modern system has the potential to significantly improve India's healthcare system.