The health ministry's Ayush department will be putting up exhibition stalls during the Commonwealth Games to promote the traditional Indian systems of medicines.

“We will showcase the benefits of the traditional Indian medicines at the Commonwealth games. This way awareness about these treatments will spread to countries outside India as well. This is a very good platform for us to explore the possibilities of using traditional medicines for sports injuries too,” health secretary S. Jalaja said here on Friday at a CII-organised conference on integrating Ayush in health delivery.

Minister of State for health and family welfare S. Gandhiselvan also addressed the gathering of health experts and company representatives where he highlighted the public-private partnerships being promoted by the department.

Secretary Jalaja added that such PPPs were already underway in Patna, Bihar and Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Under these projects the central and the state governments provide land, infrastructure and funds while the services are delivered by the private players, she informed.

On integrating traditional medicine with the modern system of medicine, she said that many Ayurvedic doctors were already serving in the primary health centres and district hospitals where doctors practicing modern medicine are not available. She attributed this to the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

“More than 40 percent of the PHCs have separate counters for ayurvedic medicine and our doctors are serving there,” she added.

On the issue of establishing quality standards for Ayurveda practitioners, the minister mentioned the collaboration between Ayush and the Quality Control of India (QCI) , an autonomous quality assurance body of the government, in awarding accreditation certificates to hospitals.

Only 0.9 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in India is spent in healthcare which is far below what is spent by the developed countries. The funds allocated for the activities under the Ayush department are Rs 650 crores which is nearly 3 percent of the total budget allocated to health for 2010-11.