Govt working towards better global acceptance of ayurveda

New Delhi: The government will work for strengthening global acceptance of ayurveda as evidence-based medicine, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday.

He was speaking after laying the foundation stone of a "Global museum of Ayurveda and Herbal Medicine" at yoga guru Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Yoga Peeth near Haridwar, according to a health ministry release, "For the first time since 1947, the government's health policy is going to lay primary emphasis on the ayurveda siddhanta. This is in tune with the times as World Health Organisation (WHO) has given considerable importance to Ayurveda in its activities related to traditional medicine," Harsh Vardhan said.

The release said that WHO has contributed substantially towards the implementation of "pharmaco-vigilance" in Ayurveda. "Now every AIIMS centre will have an indigenous medicine department of which ayurveda will be a major component," the minister said.

He said that AIIMS Rishikesh will take the lead on the issue as steps were underway to have a 100-bed AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha and homeopathy) hospital.

He said the government has set up a "committee of directors" on AYUSH to recommend a blue print for operationalising a yoga training and therapy centre at AIIMS Rishikesh.

"The old, allopathy orientation of AIIMS is out of sync with the contemporary trend of integrating indigenous and western forms of cure. That is why I wish to give Yoga, along with ayurveda, unani, siddha and homoeopathy pride of place in the AIIMS system.

"All the six new AIIMS will be dynamic institutions of integrated medicine in the years to come," Harsh Vardhan said. The minister had a detailed discussion with the yoga guru on research trends in modern science and clinical applications of yoga and ayurveda.