The 15-member health committee that has been constituted by the government of Kerala to formulate its Health policy for the year has just one Ayurveda doctor, according to the latest news reports, inviting strong protests from The Ayurveda Medical Association of India (AMAI) and rightly so. The State government, on one hand, goes all out, putting the entire strength of its resources, wooing the global traveler to experience the natural curative properties of Ayurveda, it gives scant regard to Ayurveda in the formulation and effective implementation of a health policy that will guide and affect the state’s populace. A bundle of contradictions, if you ask us!
According to the report,
Despite the Central Planning Commission’s recommendation for the inclusion of Ayurveda along with Allopathy as an alternative medical service for Kerala, facing a high incidence of life-style and communicable diseases, the government has conveniently maintained a studied silence while dealing with the issue. Member of Central Council of Indian medicine, Dr.Udayakumar expressed concerns over the unprecedented growth of quacks in Ayurveda, who according to him exploited the tourism boom in the state, providing unscientific and illegal methods of treatment and thereby reducing the Ayurveda into mere massage therapy. He said over 240 panchayats still don’t have permanent Ayurveda dispensaries or health centers.
It feels strange and surreal that the government’s lackadaisical attitude or the studied silence transforms into an aggressively, vociferous entity while marketing Ayurveda to the world. “Ayurveda draws in maximum foreign tourists. Therefore, we decided to provide a whole experience centered around the 1,500-year-old science,” is what Kerala government’s tourism Information Officer Anil V.S. proudly announced in a Tourism workshop last week.
Read the entire report here.
