Shripad Naik, the Minister of State (I/C), Ministry of AYUSH has informed that 3 New AYUSH Hospitals have been set up in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha during the 100-day period of the present government while 306 Ayush hospitals have been upgraded. The essential medicines have been supplied and sanctioned to more than 11,980 Hospitals and dispensaries which will benefit more than 2.9 cr patients, the minister informed. The support to 2,853 PHCs with co-located AYUSH Centres has been extended during the period for medicines and contingencies which will benefit 64.6 lakh patients. Sh Naik was addressing the media on achievements of Ministry of AYUSH during the first 100 days of the present Government. Sh Rajan Vaidya Katoch, Secretary, AYUSH and senior officials of the ministry were also present at the conference.Pointing out that the Health insurance for AYUSH treatments is essential for increasing the access for the public to AYUSH healthcare, shri Naik informed that the Ministry of AYUSH has been pursuing the expansion of insurance cover for AYUSH procedures diligently. He also informed that a proposal for inclusion of 19 AYUSH packages in PM-JAY has been finalised and submitted to the National Health Authority. “We have also finalised the guidelines for expanding insurance to additional AYUSH treatments, and the response of the Insurance Companies to this has been positive” added the AYUSH Minister.The AYUSH Minister further informed that his Ministry has set a target to operationalise 4,200 AYUSH Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) under Ayushman Bharat Scheme during 2019-20. He also added that after scrutiny of proposals from States, 1,754 HWCs from different States/ UTs are sanctioned, and funds for 1,037 HWCs already released.The Minister shared the commitment of the Ministry for strengthening the AYUSH health services in States / UTs and informed that an amount of Rs. 325 cr funds has been released to states for activities under NAM after due scrutiny of proposals.
While highlighting the efforts of the Ministry of AYUSH in medicinal plants cultivation, the AYUSH Minister informed, “Proposals related to Medicinal Plant cultivation have also been supported. State Action Plans from 17 States were finalised, covering approximately 6500-hectare area, and costing around Rs.36.00 crore. This will benefit over 3000 farmers, and will include establishment of 44 nurseries and 16 processing units.” To observe the 150th anniversary of the Father of the Nation, 150 mega Naturopathy camps will be held in different States during the one-year period from 2nd Oct 2019.To globalise AYUSH systems, the Minister informed that efforts in this area “have yielded notable success”. “The BIMSTEC nations with whom we share excellent political and social equations have agreed to jointly set up a BIMSTEC University of Ayurveda and Traditional Medicine in India. Another significant development has been the Country to Country MoUs signed with Gambia and Guinea, in July and August respectively, for joint efforts in promotion of Traditional Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy. In another landmark development, a MoU signed between India and China on 12th August 2019. This will see the world’s two largest Traditional Medicine Administrations collaborating for the benefit of the people of the two countries”, added the Minister.The promotion of research activities in AYUSH Systems based on modern approaches is a priority area for the Ministry and an outlay of Rs. 490 cr is anticipated over two years for this project, which is expected to create a world-wide impact”, shri Naik informed and said that a high impact Research project on introducing Ayurveda intervention in Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) in Public Health was operationalised in Primary Health Centres of Gadchiroli District of Maharashtra. “This will have 10,000 expecting mothers as subjects, a huge sample size for a medical research project. The project is expected to establish the effectiveness of GarbhiniParicharya, the traditional Ayurvedic intervention for Ante-natal care” he added.“The Central Research Councils of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha together validated 110 classical formulations for 60 conditions during this period, completed by generating evidence on clinical safety and efficacy” informed the AYUSH Minister. The 10 National Institutes functioning under the Ministry of are setting new benchmarks for education in their respective disciplines. The upgradation of National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), Jaipur is under way, and procurement of 1.37 acres of land for building 2nd campus of NIA, Jaipur finalized. All India Institute of Ayurveda, Sarita Vihar has signed an MoU with Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie for setting up an Ayurveda Wellness Centre at the Academy, and has finalized the project plan for the same. To popularise yoga in the world, observation of the International Day of Yoga 2019 on 21st June 2019 resulted in the participation of more than 13 cr people across the country.