Initiatives to resuscitate traditional medicine are welcome. There is need to iron out regulatory flaws

Context: Inaugurating the WHO’s Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) at Jamnagar in Gujarat, Prime Minister of India talked of the possibilities offered by therapeutic approaches that are different from the allopathic medicine system.

Such conversations on medical pluralism are welcome. They could pave the way for a healthcare ecosystem in which healing approaches based on diverse knowledge systems complement each other.

For that to happen, however, there must be thorough stocktaking on why practitioners of different medical systems rarely see eye to eye today. This would involve clearing misapprehensions but also, and equally importantly, ironing out regulatory deficits.

What is the situation wrt use of traditional therapies in India?

According to WHO data, 65 to 70% of people in India use traditional therapies at some stage in their lives.

The turnover of the AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha and homeopathy) industry has gone up six times in the past eight years.

What are some issues being faced by this sector?

There is a lot of misinformation about traditional therapy cures and their practitioners are spoken negatively at times. A part of the blame for this must be laid at the door of a section of practitioners who make unsubstantiated claims.

– For instance: During the pandemic, for instance, Baba Ramdev sought to exploit mass anxiety by making wildly inaccurate claims for the products manufactured by his Ayurvedic pharmacy, Patanjali Ayurved.

Reports of traditional medicine practitioners prescribing allopathic drugs and steroids are also common.

Physicians have complained about being judged according to criteria designed primarily to ascertain the efficacy of allopathic medicines.

– The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020 does try to resolve this predicament — the act was amended in 2021.

What is the way forward?

A section of traditional medicine practitioners is making efforts to sync the practices of these systems with modern research protocols.

Regulatory bodies and initiatives such as the GCTM would do well to rope in such professionals.

Source: This post is based on the article “Initiatives to resuscitate traditional medicine are welcome. There is need to iron out regulatory flaws” published in The Indian Express on 21st Apr 22.