WHO traditional medicine centre welcome

GCTM must help strengthen traditional medicine systems

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s view that the possibilities offered by traditional medical systems should be developed will be widely shared and welcomed by many. The Prime Minister made his views known last week at the inauguration of the World Health Organisations’s Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) at Jamnagar in Gujarat. The Prime Minister said that the emphasis on “holistic care” in traditional medicine systems makes them effective in dealing with the challenges posed by modern lifestyle disorders. The GCTM is expected to do research, innovation and analysis of traditional medicine systems. The WHO decided to take such an initiative because a large number of its 194 member-states have asked for its support for creation of a reliable governing body for traditional medicine systems as people in most countries widely use them. The Indian government has promised $250 million for the institute’s establishment, infrastructure and operations.

Many countries have well-established traditional therapeutic systems which are different from modern allopathic medicine. Some of them, like India’s ayurveda, Chinese medicine, and homeopathy are widely practised outside their countries of origin. Ayurveda, siddha and unani evoke a lot of trust and are practised in India. India’s Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy, established in 1995 and renamed as the Ayush ministry in 2014, has supported and promoted those systems. There is a lot of budgetary support for the traditional systems. There are about 195 undergraduate and 43 postgraduate institutions that offer courses in these streams, and there are a large number of hospitals, clinics and other facilities that offer traditional medicine treatments.

But it will be wrong to consider traditional systems as offering alternatives to modern allopathic medicine in the treatment of all diseases. Non-allopathic systems still rely on knowledge and practices passed down through generations. They need a lot of scientific research into their medicines, procedures and methodologies. The medicines also need standardisation and there is the need for better regulatory and monitoring mechanisms. There is a lot of fraud and quackery also in the name of traditional medicine. Some practitioners make wild claims and they do not serve their own cause with such claims. The claims made by some of them during the Covid crisis are examples of such practices. Some practitioners of traditional medicine are also known to prescribe allopathic medicines and resort to allopathic practices without authorisation. It is necessary to encourage and promote traditional systems, and their role and utility in the public health system should be recognised. The work at GCTM will hopefully help strengthen these systems.

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