Introduction
Healthcare in India continues to be an unfinished agenda at large, primarily on account of the sheer size of its territory massive population. These factors continue to be the reason behind significant differentials in health outcomes in access to as well as quality of healthcare, which affect socio-economically disadvantaged sections of our society.
Considering the challenges mentioned above, in order to achieve'Universal health coverage', Indian healthcare should have extensive coverage, good health outcomes, financial affordability responsiveness i.e. it should focus on the satisfaction of the patient. The Government of India has made sustained efforts for growth and development ofHomoeopathy and other traditional systems of medicine includingAyurveda,Yoga Naturopathy,Unani,Siddha andSowa Rigpa. (Collectively identified by the acronymAYUSH).
AYUSH may have effective solutions to these challenges posed before Indian Healthcare. With advantages like:
- Diversity
- Low cost
- Low technological inputs
- Absence of medicinal side effects
- Growing popularity on organic natural products
AYUSH can play a very important role in providing quality health medical care to Indian citizens particularly in remote, under-served tribal areas.
The Department ofIndianSystem ofMedicine Homoeopathy (ISMH) was created in March 1995. It was renamed as Department of AYUSH in November 2003 which focused attention to the development of education research. AYUSH is one of the important projects established by the Ministry of Health Family Welfare, Government of India underPradhanMantriSwasthyaSurakshaYojna (PMSSY).
The Ministry of AYUSH was formed on 9th November 2014 with a vision of reviving the profound knowledge of our ancient systems of medicine ensuring its optimal development propagation.
Acknowledging the potential of AYUSH in delivering universal health coverage,NationalAYUSH Mission (NAM) was launched as a part of the 12th plan by the Government of India. NAM envisages better access to AYUSH services through increase in number of AYUSH hospitals dispensaries, ensuring availability of AYUSH drugs trained manpower.