The 6th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) and Arogya Expo was held recently in New Delhi with the aim of integrating Ayurveda with the mainstream public health system and also propagating it globally as a safe and cost-efficient health care alternative.The event was organized by the AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) department under the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, in collaboration with the World Ayurveda Foundation (WAF) and the Delhi government. It was graced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who stressed on the fact that Ayurveda can acquire global recognition, like yoga, if it is presented in the right spirit and recognized as a way of life.He further added, "The biggest challenge for promoting Ayurveda is finding physicians who are completely committed to Ayurveda. Unless practitioners believe in it fully they will not be able to convince the patients." There are times when doctors may prescribe allopathic medicines initially and then switch to Ayurvedic cures. Such 'cross-pathy' is legally not allowed to be practiced.
He also explained that Ayurveda and Allopathy should not be considered as competing streams of medical science as the former is to do with prevention while the latter only deals with cures. A disease can be cured by Allopathy, but if a person adopts Ayurveda, he can protect himself against various infections and lifestyle diseases for life.He recommends, "Space has to be created in international medical and science publications, for articles on Ayurveda. But some effort needs to be made by practitioners and researchers of Ayurveda."Despite having a rich heritage of alternate systems of medicine, India lags behind China in this field. But the government has now decided to pump in around Rs. 5,000 crore in the Ayush mission which may boost the current scenario.