Rejoinder: Ministry of AYUSH writes to DH

On 20th December, Deccan Herald received a request for a rejoinder to an article published online on 20th Nov.

In regard to the article titled 'What is AYUSH and the controversy around it?', the Ministry of AYUSH would like to clarify the following points:

1. Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy are officially recognized systems of medicine grown and developed with constant policy support from Government of India. The country has a huge network of AYUSH consisting of 7,73, 668 registered practitioners, 3, 943 government hospitals, 27, 698 government dispensaries, 631 colleges and 9,038 licensed manufacturing units, five Research councils/units with more than 80 research centers/units. Besides, AYUSH service facilities are co-located in the primary health centers, community health centers and district hospitals under the initiative of National Health Mission to mainstream the AYUSH systems and strengthen the health care delivery to the people. The regulation and practices of these systems are regulated under the Medical Central Council Act, 1970 and Homeopathy Central Council Act 1973 respectively. There are exclusive regulatory and quality control provisions for Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy drugs in the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, 1940 and Drugs and Cosmetic rules, 1945. Pharmacopeia commission of Indian medicine and Homeopathy are respective Pharmacopeia Committees are in place to lay down quality standards of AYUSH drugs. Over the years, lot of scientific inputs have gone into the knowledge base of AYUSH systems for developing them on their own genius but with emerging trends and contemporary relevance. As a result, the systems are poised for globalization and government has taken many steps for international cooperation in the promotion of AYUSH systems in various countries.
   
2. Research studies have proven the safety and efficacy of AYUSH remedies and the evidence of validation are published in scientific literature. The science behind Homeopathy has been extensively explored over the years and clinical and pre-clinical have shown the efficacy of homoeopathic dilutions. Studies have revealed that homoeopathy medicines contain nanoparticles of source materials, which yield therapeutic effects by modulating biological functions rather than providing linear pharmacological effects.
   
3. There could be instances quality control lapses or failure of the product to comply with the regulatory provisions but these individual instances could not be the basis to a malign the system as a whole.
   
4. It is pertinent to mention that the holistic mode of action of AYUSH remedies is not comparable with the pharmacological approach of the conventional pharmaceutical drugs. The principles, the concept and the philosophy of AYUSH having holistic basis of their use, safety and efficacy are entirely different from the conventional medicines.