India has specific focus on Traditional Medicine and set up AYUSH Ministry under PM Modi's leadership: Mansukh Mandaviya at WHO event

Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], August 18 : Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday emphasized that India has a specific focus on Traditional Medicine under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has established a separate ministry of AYUSH, which includes Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy.
Mandaviya addressed the concluding session of the WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine and talked about the different types of traditional medicinal practices that are followed in member states, such as Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese medicine, and Herbal medicine.

He further highlighted that “during the COVID-19 crisis, traditional medicines had played a very important role through scientific and evidence-based medicines in terms of preventive, therapeutic and public health management. Ministry of Health and the Ministry of AYUSH work closely to integrate, endorse, and develop holistic health, including through the availability of traditional medicines and yoga in 150,000+ Health & Wellness Centres and by establishing centres of integrated medicines in our tertiary hospitals,” the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in an official release on Friday.
Mandaviya said that the integration of traditional medicine with modern medicine would contribute to advancing the health system attributes related to quality, efficiency, equity, accountability, sustainability and resilience.
Mansukh Mandaviya addressed the WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit, co-hosted by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the Ministry of Ayush in the presence of Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of Ayush and Director-General of World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Mahendra Munjapara, Union Minister of State for AYUSH and Bharati Pravin Pawar and Prof S P Singh Baghel, Union Ministers of State for Health and Family Welfare were also present, the official statement said.
The theme for the two-day Global Summit for Traditional Medicine was, “Towards Health and Well-being for All” and it explored the role of traditional complementary and integrative medicine in addressing pressing health challenges and driving progress in global health and sustainable development.
Since the advent of a public health systems approach, there has always been a focus on providing holistic health services centred around the principles of healthcare integration.
Moreover, “WHO’s Global Conference on Primary Health Care, 2018 & Declaration of Astana on Primary Health care also mentioned that the success of primary healthcare will be driven by applying scientific as well as traditional knowledge and by extending access to a range of healthcare services, which include traditional medicines,” the statement said.
Mandaviya further stressed that this meeting will be a torch bearer for effective health systems strengthening and will bring additional research, evidence and innovation to help us meet health-related Sustainable Development Goals.
Adding to that, Union Minister of Ayush Sarbananda Sonowal said that the Ayush industry's evolution to holistic healthcare aligns with a global shift in health consciousness. “This trend recognizes that health encompasses physical, mental, emotional and spiritual dimensions.”
He further noted that the summit will help identify potential areas for collaboration and innovation in traditional medicines and help harness traditional medicine in achieving Universal Health Coverage goals.
Sonowal emphasized that the pandemic has underscored the significance of holistic health approaches. “The AYUSH systems of medicine like Ayurveda emphasize equally on prevention and treatment parts of healthcare. Practices like yoga help in mind and body healing,” he added.
He also highlighted the versatility of AYUSH across different industries and said, “The pharmaceutical and food processing sectors benefit from the demand for herbal remedies and natural products, while the diagnostic sector gains from AYUSH's preventive focus. This synergy amplifies India's healthcare ecosystem, contributing to economic growth and healthcare sustainability.”
Director-General of World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added that traditional medicines never had this kind of attention from governments, even though they have been practised for millennia. However, he regretted that Traditional Medicinal practices are mostly stigmatized as unscientific but emphasized that they have their own utility as well.
“Recognizing the benefits in the use of traditional medicines, WHO recently established the Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar, Gujarat”, he stated.
Ghebreyesus appreciated India’s role in promoting the use of traditional medicines and hoped that this first-ever summit on traditional medicines will be a catalyst for bringing together modern science and traditional knowledge in making health systems better.
Furthermore, Sudhansh Pant, Secretary, of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, of the Ministry of AYUSH; Lav Agarwal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; and Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director, South East Asia Region, also participated at the event.
The event also witnessed the participation of scientists, practitioners of traditional medicine, health workers as well as members of civil society organizations from across the world for two days.