The Regional Review meeting of National Ayush Mission was ceremonially inaugurated by the Union Minister of Ayush and Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal along with the Union Minister of State for Ayush & Women and Child Development, Dr Munjpara Mahendrabhai; Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Govt of Tamil Nadu, Thiru Ma Subramanian; Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Govt of Karnataka, Dinesh Gundu Rao; Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha among other senior officials from governments of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala & Tamil Nadu, UT of Puducherry, UT of Lakshadweep and Ministry of Ayush, Govt of India were present.

During the meeting, representative of all the participating states & union territories presented detailed presentations on the state of Ayush and progress of leading Ayush programmes under implementation.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal said, “Our rich heritage and potential of traditional form of medicine has withstood the test of time in generations of humanity to live a better, healthier and happier life. We must take full advantage of this generous forms of medicine - be it Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Yoga, Naturopathy, Sowa Rigpa, or Homoeopathy. Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, we have been working towards scientifically integrate traditional forms of medicine with the modern medicine.”

Highlighting the utility of Ayush system of medicine the Minister further said, “Ayush has some robust programmes like Ayurvidya for promotion of healthy lifestyle through Ayush for school children; Supraja: Ayush for Maternal & Neonatal intervention; Vayomitra which is Ayush based geriatric programme; Prevention and management of Osteoarthritis and other Musculoskeletal disorders, Ayush Mobile Medical units etc. will strengthen the Ayush systems.”

The Ministry of Ayush is working on operationalisation of 12,500 Ayush Health and Wellness Centres (AHWCs) through support of State/UT Governments under National Ayush Mission (NAM) by the 2023-24. The main objectives are to establish holistic wellness model based on Ayush principles and practices, to empower masses for “self-care” to reduce the disease burden, out of pocket expenditure and to provide informed choice to the needy public. Ministry of Ayush has so far released Rs. 719.70 crores to southern states/UTs (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Telangana) under NAM since 2014-15. Ministry has also supported 17 Integrated Ayush hospitals in Southern States and out of that 06 are operational as reported by them. Out of 12,500 AHWCs, Ministry has already supported 2181 AHWCs in Southern States/UTs and out of that 1518 are reported functional by the them.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Munjpara Mahendrabhai said, “I believe we have to emphasize outcomes as a more meaningful measure of programme value than output. We may have to realign our strategies and techniques to plan, execute and report our performance that facilitates measure of outcomes. I am confident that such discussions will give us an opportunity to learn from each other best practices and building a strong bonding among all of us.”

Till 2022-23, 315 Ayush Hospitals and 5,023 Ayush dispensaries have been supported for Up-gradation of infrastructure and other facilities. Financial Assistance has also been provided for 13 New Ayush Educational Institutions and 77 Under-Graduate and 35 Post-Graduate Ayush Educational Institutes have been supported for upgradation of infrastructure, Library and other things.

Under NAM, Ministry is providing support to the States/UTs including Southern States/UTs for Co-location of Ayush facilities in Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs) and District Hospitals (DHs), setting up of Integrated Ayush hospitals, new Ayush Dispensaries, operationalization of Ayush Health & Wellness Centres by upgrading the existing Ayush Dispensaries and Sub-Centres, upgradation of UG & PG Ayush Education Institutes, so that the people may be able to avail the services from more Ayush healthcare facilities.

NAM is being implemented with the vision and objectives to provide Ayush health care services throughout the country by strengthening and improving facilities, to provide informed choice to the needy public. Under NAM, Ministry has also supported 02 New Ayush Educational Institutes in Karnataka and 01 Ayush Educational Institute each in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and out of that 02 in Karnataka are functional. Till the year 2022-23, 137 Integrated Ayush Hospitals have been supported and out of that 37 are functional, 86 are under Construction and 14 in process. More than 8.42 crores people got benefitted through Ayush system of medicine through AHWC in 2022.

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SK