The hardships of a career in Ayurvedic practice

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS

• Despite the publicity campaigns to promote Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH), there is a trust-deficit in these systems.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context

Public Health:

• It is the science of protecting the safety and improving the health of communities through education, policy making and research for disease and injury prevention.

AYUSH:

• Traditional & Non-Conventional Systems of Health Care and Healing Which Include Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy e

Features of the Indian systems of medicine:

• Their diversity, flexibility; accessibility; affordability, a broad acceptance by a large section of the general public
• Comparatively lesser cost and growing economic value
• Great potential to make them providers of healthcare that the large sections of our people need.

Reasons for Skepticism about AYUSH:

• Skepticism in the public mind about the soundness of Ayurvedic theories and the fruitfulness of its practices.
• The Ayurveda establishment has failed to keep pace with the intellectual and scientific advances of the times.
• Archaic theories that are apt to arouse suspicion in the minds of educated patients are peddled as sophisticated dogmas.
• Treatments are made to escape straightforward experimental scrutiny because of their supposed rootedness in such theories.
• Diminished evidence-based quality.
• Ayurveda treatments are slow to heal is another common view that characterizes the public image of Ayurveda.

A practitioner’s ordeal:

• Ayurveda does not have a vibrant ecosystem of science and research
• A poor practitioner has to depend on himself to discover treatments and approaches that actually work.
• Sifting the usable parts from the obsolete ones requires prior experience, a knowledge of practice trends, and of course, a robust common sense.
• The process involves a lot of trial and error with patients and predictably leads to an erosion of the practitioner’s reputation.
• Ayurveda can be used safely and efficiently only in about 60%-70% of primary-care illnesses.
  • Patient interest would necessitate complementing Ayurveda with modern medicine.
• Most States prohibit the practice of modern medicine by Ayurveda graduates and, consequently, the practitioner finds himself crippled again.

Success of some practitioners:

• Practitioners resorting to gimmickry and publicity have a field day.
• Using regular newspaper columns, television shows, and social media sites, they entrap gullible patients.
• “Ayurvedic astrology,” the AYUSH establishment also implicitly lends support to their ‘charlatanry’.

• Real patient benefit would be sustainable as opposed to patient gratification which is momentary.
  • Sustainability of treatments requires a gradual transition from illness to wellness.
• There is enough material in medical literature today to substantiate the prudence of this approach — at least, in principle.
• The popular view that Ayurvedic treatments are slow to heal is thus a half-truth.
  • It can be corrected by appropriate patient education
• Appropriate policy-making can solve a lot of these problems that well-meaning Ayurveda practitioners face.
• Primary-care doctors are becoming an endangered species in India’s health-care system.
  • Rejuvenating primary care is a sine qua non if a country is to secure the health of its citizens.
  • Ayurveda graduates can contribute enormously towards this rejuvenation if trained properly.
• A proper training of Ayurveda graduates with a view to make them good primary-care doctors would involve preparatory exercises:
  • Vigorous evidence-based appraisal of Ayurvedic theories and practices in order to sift the usable from the obsolete
  • A statutory decision to allow Ayurveda graduates to practice modern medicine in stipulated primary care areas.
• Ayurveda, science, and public welfare all stand to gain: There is need for sincerity, straight-thinking, and some adventurism on the part of stakeholders.

Source: The Hindu

• Prelims: Current events of national importance, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), AYUSH,
• Mains GS Paper I & II: Development and management of social sectors/services related to Health and education etc

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Besides being a moral imperative of the Welfare State, primary health structure is a necessary precondition for sustainable development.” Analyze.(UPSC 2021) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)