Underlining the importance of traditional healthcare systems along with modern medicines, union minister of AYUSH Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday said, “Modern and Traditional Medicine systems will have to go hand in hand to provide the best health care to the people.”

He was speaking at the inauguration of the 4th Regional Review Meeting, on National Ayush Mission for 6 States/UTs, organised in Mumbai.

The meeting was attended by officials and representatives of AYUSH from states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and UTs of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and of Daman & Diu. Earlier series of meetings were held in Eastern, Madhya and Southern zone.

Sonowal said that the National AYUSH Mission (NAM) is being implemented with the vision and objectives to provide AYUSH health care services throughout the country by strengthening and improving AYUSH health care facilities to provide an informed choice to the needy public.

Highlighting the importance of making AYUSH available for all, the minister said that it is a shared responsibility to channelise the support offered to states/UTs through the National AYUSH Mission so as to make the healthcare system available at grass-root level through Jan Bhagidari.

Sonowal reiterated that integrative health care with a blend of modern and traditional medicine systems will have to go hand in hand to provide the best health care to the people.

With the World Health Organisation and Government of India recognising  the role of  awareness generation  for traditional medicine, he said, “Establishment of Global Centre of Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar, Gujarat has opened new vistas of growth of scientific and evidence based traditional medicine systems of India  and through a  flagship programme like National AYUSH Mission we are making sure that the benefits of traditional medicine reach  every nook and corner of the country.”

Minister of state for AYUSH Dr Munjpara Mahendrabhai said, “I believe we have to emphasise outcomes as more meaningful measure of programme value than output. We may have to realign our strategies and techniques to plan, execute and report our performance that facilitates measure of outcomes. I am confident that such discussions will give us an opportunity to learn from each other's best practices and build a strong bonding among all of us.”  

Speaking on Regional Review Meetings, Rajesh Kotecha, secretary, ministry of AYUSH, said that the National AYUSH Mission, a flagship scheme of the ministry is being implemented through state/UT governments for development and promotion of AYUSH systems in the country.

“Budgetary provisions for the NAM Scheme have also increased from Rs 800 crore to Rs 1,200 crore. The ministry has organised one-to-one review meetings with all states/UTs and these meetings were attended by the senior officers, commissioners and mission directors of different states/UTs with fruitful discussions,” he said.

Joint secretary, ministry of AYUSH, Kavita Garg made a presentation on current progress of AYUSH and roadmap for it for 2025. Presentations were also given by participating research councils/national institutes of the ministry.