Mainstreaming of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy with the health care delivery system in India

Abstract

India has a population of 1.21 billion people and there is a high degree of socio-cultural, linguistic, and demographic heterogeneity. There is a limited number of health care professionals, especially doctors, per head of population. The National Rural Health Mission has decided to mainstream the Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH) system of indigenous medicine to help meet the challenge of this shortage of health care professionals and to strengthen the delivery system of the health care service. Multiple interventions have been implemented to ensure a systematic merger; however, the anticipated results have not been achieved as a result of multiple challenges and barriers. To ensure the accessibility and availability of health care services to all, policy-makers need to implement strategies to facilitate the mainstreaming of the AYUSH system and to support this system with stringent monitoring mechanisms.

Prevalence of homeopathy use by the general population worldwide: a systematic review

“…A number of countries include homeopathy in their publicly funded healthcare systems (UK, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, India, Pakistan, Brazil, and Mexico 53 ), yet our review identified estimates from only two of these countries e Switzerland (which has the highest estimate of treatment by a homeopath) and the UK (which had the highest estimate of all homeopathy use). No published English language surveys were identified in India, where homeopathy is a popular treatment modality 54 and considered part of mainstream medicine. We recommend that a further review is conducted which includes all languages.…”

Jamu brand Indonesia: consumer preferences and segmentation

“…On the other hand, Indonesian government adopts Indian Ayurveda which includes the use of herbal medicines in healthcare services (Shrivastava, Shrivastava, & Ramasamy, 2015), and makes classification and enrichment of Jamu into Phytopharmacy, under the management of Department of Healthcare, as an important objective. A government regulation which includes Jamu as primary medication in public health care services and which gives more access to the testing of Jamu and its halal certification is much needed.…”

“Getting the water-carrier to light the lamps” : Discrepant role perceptions of traditional, complementary, and alternative medical practitioners in government health facilities in India

“…Other examinations of the functioning of co-located AYUSH and allopathic facilities have found little or no interaction, professional or social, among providers practising different systems of medicine at the same facility, no published protocol for cross-referral ( Shrivastava et al., 2015 , Chandra, 2011 , Priya, 2013 ), little or no cross-referral ( SEDEM, 2010 ), and no documentation of referral when it does occur ( Priya and Shweta, 2010 , Gopichandran and Kumar, 2012 , Priya, 2013 ).…”