An Evaluation on Medical Education, Research and Development of AYUSH Systems of Medicine through Five Year Plans of India.

Abstract

Indian system of medicine has its origin in India. The system is currently renamed as AYUSH, an acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Sidha and Homeopathy. These are the six Indian systems of medicine prevalent and practiced in India and in few neighboring Asian countries. The primary objective of this review was to gain insight in to the prior and existing initiatives which would enable reflection and assist in the identification of future change. A review was carried out based on the five year plan documents, obtained from the planning commission web portal of Govt. of India, on medical education, research and development of AYUSH systems of medicine. Post independence, the process of five year planning took its birth with the initiation of long term planning in India. The planning process embraced all the social and technology sectors in it. Since the beginning of five year planning, health and family welfare planning became imperative as a social sector planning. Planning regarding Indian Systems of Medicine became a part of health and family welfare planning since then. During the entire planning process a progressive path of development could be observed as per this evaluation. A relatively sluggish process of development was observed up to seventh plan however post eighth plan the growth took its pace. Eighth plan onwards several innovative development processes could be noticed. Despite the relative developments and growth of Indian systems of medicine these systems have to face lot of criticism and appraisal owing to their various characteristic features. In the beginning the system thrived with great degree of uncertainty, as described in 1(st) five year plan, however progressed ahead with a vision to be a globally accepted system, as envisaged in 11(th) five year plan. A very strong optimistic approach in spreading India's own medical heritage is the need of the hour. The efforts are neither completely insufficient nor sufficient enough; hence a continuous endeavor for the revival and dissemination of India's own medical inheritance for the welfare of the society at large is highly desirable.