WHO to set up global centre for traditional medicine in India’s Gujarat

The World Health Organization will set up a global hub for traditional medicine to provide affordable healthcare solutions and research as well as reliable evidence that alternative healing is based on science and not fiction.

The WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicines in Gujarat. © WHO

The facility will open in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home-state Gujarat on 21 April, officials said, adding India will invest 224 million Euros into the unique project.

It will aim to “harness the potential of traditional medicine from across the world through modern science and technology,” WHO said.

WHO & the Government of #India🇮🇳 today agreed to establish the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine, to maximize the potential of traditional medicines through modern science and technology https://t.co/KlkDdDB3LK pic.twitter.com/Ca5V7GcCAG

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 25, 2022

The research hub will also accord biological plausibility to indigenous practices and products which has often run afoul of the authorities in the West because of suspicions of unsafe practices or untested research.

The WHO estimates 80 percent of the world’s population use traditional medicines including Ayurvedic botanical products, which faced a ban by the European Union a decade ago and earlier in Canada.

“For many millions of people around the world, traditional medicine is the first port of call to treat many diseases,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“A commendable initiative,” added Modi, who set up a special ministry to promote alternative healthcare systems after assuming office in 2014.

Medics hail project

The Association of Ayurvedic Physicians of India said single-window research for the first time in the world was a good sign.

“It is really a good sign because it could have been opened anywhere in the world but WHO selected India,” association secretary Jyoti Shankar Tripathi told RFI.

Indian Medical Association (IMA), which has 400,000 mainstream physicians on its rolls also welcomed the WHO hub but cautioned against “mix-and-match” of various indigenous systems in the name of research.

“If it can prove to the society that individually each of the systems will contribute then definitely acceptance will come but mixing up of systems will be of no use,” IMA President J.A. Jayalal told RFI.

Therapy bazaar

India has 788,000 registered practitioners of Yoga, Homeopathy, Ayurveda, Naturopathy as well as Unani which is popular among Moslems and Siddha system of cure used largely in parts of southern India.

Bihar, one of India’s most impoverished states, accounts for the largest number of Ayurveda physicians and it is followed by the country’s richest province Maharashtra.

India also has 3,600 non-allopathic hospitals and 660 medical schools for traditional medicines, according to available records.

Degrees in alternative medicine cost a fraction of fees charged especially by India’s privately-run medical schools.

Tall claims

The IMA estimates 40 percent of India’s one million unqualified healthcare providers it labels as “quacks” practice indigenous forms of medicine which is within easy reach of the poor.

The UN in 2019 estimated 364 million of India’s 1.4 billion people live in poverty.

The two pan-India forums of medics also say some of the 8,000 local licensed pharmacies marketing branded Ayurvedic products make exaggerated claims because of loopholes in law.

The word Greeva Basti is made from two Sanskrit words. Greeva means neck and nasty stands for container or retaining something inside. This is the kind of treatment in which medicated oil is poured and cooled for a fixed time. This is Ayurvedic neck care and hot oil therapy. pic.twitter.com/E0VuH8Ka2i

— Haritha Ayurveda Academy And Panchakarma Center (@harithayurveda) March 29, 2022

“The government excludes such firms from rules on good manufacturing practices but it should now make it mandatory for them to follow the norms,” said Tripathi, a professor at India’s 106-year-old Benaras Hindu University.

The demand came as a Yoga guru who heads a consumer goods empire in India claimed sure-cure treatment for blood pressure to diabetes with concoctions he produces.

In 2020, the guru ran into a storm of controversies when he tried to market coronavirus treatment products he said had a 100 percent record in curing Covid-19 patients.

“Until and unless a system comes into place it will not be possible to control such kind of motivated people who will always find opportunities to promote themselves,” added IMA’s Jayalal.