Health, AYUSH ministries should work together to integrate AYUSH system, modern medicine: Parliamentary panel

The committee is of the firm view that the AYUSH Ministry needs to take initiative to promote and integrate Indian systems of medicine with the modern systems to increase their acceptability as scientific and reliable alternate systems of medicine.

The committee, in its recent report, appreciated the strategy of the National Policy on Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy, 2002 which envisages integration of AYUSH with healthcare delivery system.

"The committee would like to recommend to the ministry (AYUSH) to engage with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for integration of AYUSH systems with modern medicine," the report stated.

The committee also recommended a substantial increase in funds for institutes like the Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) and the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy for carrying out research to increase the credibility of AYUSH systems.

The committee said that it was the need of the hour to focus on scientific research, including collaborative research, to increase the credibility of AYUSH systems by promoting standardisation, scientific re-validation of AYUSH drugs, collaborative research projects with ICMR etc.

For increasing such activities, which will certainly increase the acceptability of AYUSH, adequate funds need to be earmarked for research activities so that the institutes serve the purpose for which they have been established, it said.

The committee also asked the ministry to take up the matter of bringing in a new legislation with the Health Ministry on priority in the wake of sale of spurious/sub-standard Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani (ASU) drugs.

It also sought to be apprised of the composition of the two empowered committees constituted in March 2018 and the work done by them with respect to the regulatory vertical structure of AYUSH for quality assurance and control of misleading advertisement/exaggerated claims.