The Ministry of Ayush is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for education, research, and propagation of traditional and alternative medicine systems in India. Ayush is an acronym devised from the names of the alternative healthcare systems covered by the ministry: ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and homeopathy. The Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy (ISM&H) was first established in 1995 under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare by the then Narasimha Rao government. ISM&H was renamed as the Department of AYUSH in 2003. The department was made into an official ministry in 2014. The ministry has been accused of promoting pseudoscience as most of the practices regulated are pseudoscientific. It has faced significant criticism for funding systems that lack biological plausibility and are either untested or conclusively proven as ineffective. Quality of research has been poor, and drugs have been launched without rigorous pharmacological studies and meaningful clinical trials on ayurveda or other alternative healthcare systems.
History
Emphasis on indigenous healthcare models Successive Five-Year Plans of India (produced by the Planning Commission of India) allotted considerable focus to alternative, especially indigenous, forms of medicine within the healthcare sector. The Government of India set up a number of committees for healthcare sector development, including Bhore (1946), Mudaliar (1961), and Srivastava (1975), that emphasized the need for improvement of traditional systems of Indian medicine. The National Health Policy (1983), National Education Policy in Health Sciences (1989), and National Health Policy (2002) further elaborated on the role of the Indian System of Medicine (ISM) and Homeopathy (H) as a means to facilitate healthcare access in rural areas where many Indians lack adequate health services.
Educational courses and ISM&H A diploma course in ayurveda was launched in the third (1961–1966) five-year plan. The Central Council of Indian Medicine was established in 1971. followed by Central Council of Homeopathy in 1973. The sixth (1980–1985) and seventh (1985–1990) five-year plans aimed at developing novel ISM&H drugs. The eighth (1992–1997) five-year plan lent considerable emphasis on the mainstreaming of Ayush. The Department of Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy was launched in March 1995, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The ninth five-year plan (1998–2002) ensured for its integration with western medicine. It was the first to tackle different aspects of the Ayush system in a standalone manner which focused on overall development including investment in human resource development, preservation and cultivation of medicinal plants, establish a more complete pharmacopoeia, and outline good manufacturing processes. The acronym AYUSH was devised in 2003. The department of Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy was renamed the department of AYUSH in November 2003. The National Rural Health Mission was launched in 2005 with the stated aim of integrating Ayush practitioners into national health programs, including in primary health care (Ayush medical officers at community health centers, para-professionals et al.) and to provide support for research in the field. The National Rural Health Mission listed the mainstreaming of Ayush as one of its priorities.
After 2014 Observers noted an increased focus on Ayush healthcare after the 2014 Indian general elections, which brought the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power. On 9 November 2014 the previous government department for traditional Indian medicine was elevated by the administration of Narendra Modi into a standing ministry that includes the promotion of yoga practice and the use of Ayurvedic products. The allotted budget for Ayush had more than doubled since 2013–14, and stood at ₹ 1428.7 crore for 2017–18.
Activities
Healthcare The ministry runs multiple healthcare programs; primarily aimed at the rural population. Ayush is supposed to form an integral backbone of the Ayushman Bharat Yojana and the ministry had long worked for integrating the different systems of Ayush with modern medicine, in what has been described as 'a type of "cross-pathy"'. More than 50,000 children have been enrolled in 'Homeopathy for Healthy Child'. It observes different days to raise general awareness about Ayush and promote each of the systems. The ministry had collaborated with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to set up the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) in 2001, on codified traditional knowledge on Indian systems of medicines such as ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and yoga as a means of preventing grant of "bed" patents on traditional knowledge and thus counter biopiracy.
Institutions The ministry is also at the aegis of several professional research institutes and academic faculties devoted to various forms of alternative medicine:
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