Soham D Bhaduri
Health policy expert
In India at the beginning of the 20th century, interest in traditional medicine, mainly Ayurveda, was enthusiastically revived. This was preceded and supported by a large campaign to translate and make accessible ancient texts of the British rule, which unfortunately showed off the glorious past of ancient Indian medicine, which has not kept up with modernity. Further spurred by the sentiment of nationalism, this is a vigorous attempt by proponents of traditional Indian medicine to give greater confidence to their system through the methods directed by modern medicine, namely modern scientific research and innovation. It led to. This did not last long, and the newly independent India could not surpass the first, abandoned attempt to integrate traditional and modern systems.
With the current political power in power, it seemed to many that a new phase of the revival of traditional medicine had finally begun. In 2014, a central ministry specializing in Ayurveda, yoga, naturopathic medicine, unani, siddha and homeopathy was established to promote research, innovation and dissemination of Ayurveda. Attempts to mainstream Ayush in the public health system, including the greater integration of Ayush practitioners into mainstream health care, were visibly emphasized. Recently, the government has urged Ayush practitioners to practice more and more allopathy, a “one health, one health system” to facilitate a two-way exchange between modern medicine and Ayush. The vision has also been announced. But is this revival really heading in the right direction?
Recently, the Prime Minister has launched a global Ayush investment and innovation summit, while encouraging more investment in the Ayush sector, a large Indian brand that attracts start-ups, medical tourists and more exports. Helped to become. The unprecedented growth in the production of Ayush’s formulations, supplements and cosmetics has been welcomed as well as the power of investment to further develop Ayush. The “Ayush Mark”, which characterizes export quality and genuine Ayush products, and a special visa category to promote Ayush’s medical tourism have also been declared. By reviewing these suggestions, you can pinpoint your mistakes.
In mainstream health care, the free market, which operates according to market principles, is skeptical, at least in terms of the range of population health. The free market for healthcare is traditionally known to be imperfect and tends to fail due to many factors such as information asymmetry, lack of product and price uniformity, externalities, and barriers to entry. there is. The idea of attracting large-scale private investment in healthcare as a formal public policy issue is largely avoided, at least on the surface, in support of increased public funding for healthcare. Many will argue that India’s health care is predominantly privatized and under-regulated, but today’s Ayush sector has the most laissez-faire of the larger medical ecosystem. It stands out as.
Private investment is driven by supply and demand factors, regardless of their broader importance to national health. Even if only basic regulatory arrangements such as quality checks exist, treatments and interventions with the most favorable general perception will attract the greatest investment if free influx is allowed. It does not matter if there is sufficient evidence to support them or if the health goals of the population have been achieved. The Covid-19 pandemic sets a good precedent for this. Especially in the early stages of the pandemic, even in major cities like Mumbai, the explicit promotion and sale of certain suspicious “immune boosters” was cascaded. Such perceptions are difficult to dismiss and rarely foster the spirit and intent of public health. Also, such increased investment is not profitable. In a less extreme sense, this has always been true of India’s Ayush sector and is only emphasized in the face of the more laissez-faire policies that have been pursued recently.
This laissez-faire approach is unfortunately at the heart of the current Ayush resurrection movement, with a few exceptions. Between 2015 (the year after the Ayush Ministry was convened) and 2022, budget allocations to the Ayush Province increased at a discreet CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 16% (actual budget estimate). With a constant lack of sufficient evidence to support its effectiveness, large-scale investments in Ayush are prone to general skepticism, limiting the room available for governments to increase their investment in Ayush. It’s no wonder they are. Given this, private investment remains the only major tool.
The way this stands to further alienate modern and traditional systems in mainstream healthcare is remarkable and extremely bitter. Today, for most democratic governments, including India, publicly funded or insured universal health insurance is, at least as it is said, the Holy Grail. Justifying the inclusion of Ayush’s intervention in public health insurance can be very difficult and unacceptable in the face of rising health care costs and tight public funding. Some of our precarious attempts to mainstream Ayush in primary health care can hardly withstand. The adverse commercialization of the resulting Ayush medicines and formulations is already widely known. Unable to offer widely accepted and accepted mainstream treatment options, more inventories of Ayush today are dietary supplements and cosmeceuticals that expel an array of potentially important medical compounds from the country. It is disposed of so that it can be directed to flashy and unnecessary miscellaneous goods such as. The current focus on promoting exports of Ayush products only exacerbates this.
The entire country’s current paradigm of Ayush resurrection needs to be revisited so as not to run the risk of being permanently driven into exotic choices for foreigners and a few believing compatriots. At least mentally, there is a lot to learn from countries such as China that have done remarkable work to integrate the education and practice of modern and traditional healthcare systems. Prescribed correct ways to do things scientifically validate traditional medical approaches, eliminate redundancy, maintain value, and make them an integral part of well-regulated mainstream medical care. It’s a long and difficult route, including integrating as. Prey on the devastation of the free market. Only this can legitimately constitute the spirit of Ayush Revival. Today, it is well understood that traditional systems do not easily yield to traditional research methods, and alternative approaches to investigating them are almost in the early stages. However, it is still premature to give in to the idea that traditional systems are scientifically irreversible.
