A national event on collaboration between Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Ayush for nutritional improvement in adolescent girls took place at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi today (26 February, 2024). Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister for Women & Child Development and Minority Affairs and Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister for Shipping & Waterways & Ayush graced the event.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on the occasion for implementation of a project to control anemia among adolescent girls through Ayurvedic interventions in the five districts under ‘Mission Utkarsh’ between the Ministry of Ayush and the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

The Union Minister for Women and Child Development announced that the Ministry will also take up a joint venture with Ministry of Ayush and ICMR for effective interventions like Yoga in Polycystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD) among adolescent girls. The Union Minister hoped that India could lead in the prevention of anemia through providing cost effective and palatable Ayush medicines for better compliance with minimum adverse effects. She highlighted the coming together of 18 Ministries to address the issue of nutrition (Poshan Abhiyan). The Minister also mentioned that, for the first time an Ayush intervention is being evaluated by ICMR. A positive outcome would allow the intervention to be rolled out all across the country and also outside. This evaluation is being done by topmost medical institutions of the country like AIIMS which provides excellent credibility to the study.

Union Minister for Ayush emphasized the need for a “Anemia Mukt Bharat”.  We need to adopt healthy lifestyle and inculcate practice of Yoga for holistic health care, he added. Dr Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush stressed for strategic partnership and innovative intervention for better health outcomes. Mr Indevar Pandey, Secretary, Ministry of WCD emphasized and appreciated traditional healing through Ayush.

Under this Mission Utkarsh program, over 94,000 adolescent girls between the age group of 14-18 years registered under Poshan Tracker at approximately 10,000 Anganwadi Centres will be benefitted in 12 months period of program. The coordinating agency for the project will be Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS). Classical Ayurveda medicines (Drakshavaleha and Punarnavadi mandoor) for better nutrition to improve the health of the anemic adolescent girls will be provided for a period of 3 months. The districts to be covered include; Dhubri, Bastar, Paschimi Singhbhum, Gadchiroli and Dhoulpur from the states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Rajasthan respectively.

This project is being jointly funded by both the Union Ministries and will be executed in the five districts through Central Ayurveda Research Institute, Guwahati; All India Institute for Ayurveda, New Delhi; CARI, Bhubaneshwar; Regional Ayurveda Research Institute, Nagpur and National Institute Ayurveda, Jaipur. Public Health Foundation of India’s IIPH, Delhi will also play an important role by assessing the outcomes of this project.

Prof. Rabinarayan Acharya, Director General, CCRAS delivered his speech on the topic “Role of Ayush Systems for overall holistic health and Perspective on Ayush Intervention in Utkarsh Districts”. The WHO representative, Dr Pushpa Chaudhari also delivered her talk on “Importance of Diet Diversity and Local Dietary Practices for promoting Wellness”. The DG, ICMR Dr Rajiv Bahl, spoke on “Collaboration with Ayush for empirical evidence and clinical trials on traditional interventions.” He briefed the already ongoing research project on the Ayurveda interventions in Anemia being conducted at 9 prime institutes like AIIMS Jodhpur, AIIMS Bhopal, AIIMS New Delhi, AIIMS Bibi Nagar, ICMR-NITM, Belgavi; RIMS, Ranchi; MGIMS, Wardha and KEM Hospital, Pune. He also mentioned the encouraging outcomes of research on Yoga in PCOD.

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SS/AKS