Transmitting ‘Health’ from ‘Market’ to ‘Service’ and ultimately to Common Man’s praxis
Spontaneously harmonious relationship between individual, society, and Nature is a lovely and eternal cosmic order. Every individual is a unique entity existing in a paradigm of time and space with her individualistic nature. Health experiences of individuals are quite relative in nature and evolution of health cultures in different parts of the World, Country, State or district has their own identity, relevance, and necessity. There is hardly any integration of various local health practices or acceptance of one unifying standard or for that matter bureaucratic formal organization of this sector. This may be one of the reasons for the relative lack of written theories or world views for most of the local health practices especially in vogue among tribal communities.
During the healing process the conditioning of the body and mind, tuned in with the environment, is an important step in various health cultures. The curing power of a physician or health practitioner varies, based on the personal capacities, to enhance the recovery at a psychosomatic level. Deep belief in this person-specific capacity is fundamental to the outcome of the treatment process in traditional and tribal medicine.
A long journey from Rigveda
Modern science confirms the discoveries made by seers of Rigveda – the most ancient scripture of human civilization. It says – from Akash, Vayu (air) came into being and from Vayu, Agni (fire) took shape; from Agni, Apah (water) was formed; from Apah came Khit (Earth), Ausadhi (plants) were formed out of khit. From Ausadhi, animals and human beings (praani) were born. So, humans are the latest in Nature’s evolutionary process. There is no reason why a human being who is a creation of Nature would not return to Nature to repair any disorder in her physical system.
It is not only plants that have miraculous healing capacity but also the Space, the Earth, the Fire, the Air, and the Water do have tremendous potentialities to provide strength and treatment in gross and subtle forms. These five elements are the basic constituents of the human body. Equilibrium and balance of these elements keep a body healthy. A slight imbalance in the equilibrium creates disorder. So, any external elements like bacteria or viruses are just agents to cause this disorder. And any treatment process that stops at nullifying the effect of these external elements through their suppression or removal is incomplete. The human being is a product of Nature. Any disorder in the physical system is rooted in the imbalance of the basic elements that constitute the gross and subtle human body.
The Human Development Report has expressed its concern about the over-prescription, over drugging, over investigation and overtreatment that is prevalent. It also says about how this has been harming the health of the people, particularly the poor. Health is now a commodity in the international market of $ 4 trillion dollars. The common man has turned to be an embodiment of diseases with a modern but unhealthy lifestyle. Impact of climate change, psychic pressures due to isolation, insecurities, uncertainties, temptations, and ambitions are resulting in the victimization of human beings of all strata, all sections, and all divisions. The malfunction of public health system infrastructures and service provision mechanisms led to exploitation by health service providers and institutions. The adverse effects on health, economy, technical feasibility, functional resources, and community involvement are evident.
‘SWASTHYA – ‘balanced state of body and mind’ was within the purview of the Aryas and Dravids separately in the ancient age of 8th millennium BCE as per records available from caves in Hindukush, Aravali, and Vindhya mountain ranges. There were inscriptions on healthy living, smooth delivery of babies, application of plants on diseases like fever; intestine problems, skin diseases and joint pains. This evolution of knowledge on health grew with time as successive Rishis developed it with inference, empirical and experience on physiology, hygiene, analysis of mind, etc. During the 5th millennium Rigveda and later Samaveda and Yajurveda were subsequently evolved and compiled. Atharvan Jabalii, the leader of the Rishis who worked on health and diseases was looked down upon because he was dealing with baser subjects like body care. Sensing the priority given to soul over body, Ashwini brothers stayed away from congregations of philosophy, and epistemology. Rishi Yagyavalkya and Ashtavakra belonged to this congregation.
Rishi Shukracharya joined the Dravid communities and went towards middle India. Later in the 3rd millennium with the conscious intervention of Rishi Vyasdev this knowledge on the material world, health, and diseases was named as Atharva. It was included in Vedas after a series of deliberations with mainstream Rishis. It was the only Veda named after a Rishi. But even then, the health practitioners known as Vaidya were always underestimated by the learned and the Rishis, but respected by the community and kings. Their positions were dual and critical. Innovations in the application of herbs, minerals, etc. had to pass through criticism and opposition. Therefore, Charak Rishi practiced new experiments silently in his Ashram at Kapurthala (Punjab) and noted them which were later known as Charak Samhita.
This perpetuation of hindrances reached its peak when Sushruta, a Brahmin of Banaras (Uttar Pradesh) conducted series of studies by vivisecting dead bodies, thrown into the river Ganga by the kith and kin who hoped for direct access to heaven for the deceased. People opposed and attacked Sushruta and his disciples. It forced them to stop their research halfway. Sushruta was a great inventor of operations in ophthalmology like operating cataracts. He mentioned methods of surgical removal of stones in gall bladder and kidney, caesarean section, treatment of fistula, plastic surgery of the nose (and other mutilated parts), and amputations in case of gangrene. He enumerated the use of about 125 surgical implements used in operations. Sushruta recommended a strict dietary regimen along with medication in managing different diseases. He laid special emphasis on hygiene in his treatise.
Charak and Sushruta – the two great masters (on health, hygiene, disease prevention and control) taught at Taxila University, which was the first of its kind in world history. The learned men’s writings had reached the Far East, Middle East, and Western countries through their overseas students, much before Hippocrates. The documents prove that these Rishis were aware of the functions of internal organs and lungs. However, the ruling class was intolerant of the independence of Taxila University. The students and teachers though, with their valour and intelligence, played a pivotal role in the return of Alexander the great. By the 2nd century BCE this university started to ebb with the closing of research and innovations in science, technology, health, economics, politics, etc. The new ideas and writing of scriptures were stopped by the beginning of the first century CE. It is yet to be revived. Today the entire Ayurveda is dependent on the knowledge documented in those days with no further authentic research or progress.
Tribals are wiser than we perceive
In the last five hundred years, many new therapeutic applications came into existence namely Naturopathy, Unani and Homeopathy, along with Yoga – the ancient practice for control of body and mind. Healers from tribal India practising traditional methods of applying herbs (externally and internally) for some diseases are unknown and techniques are not codified in Ayurveda. Their treatment on the bone setting, on Orthopaedics and even on the nerve system is miraculous, and far ahead of Allopathy or Ayurveda, attracting thousands of patients every day from all over the country and outside.
Traditional practices by local tribals during delivery are very effective: In case of prolonged labour pains, they apply pure mustard oil and rub on the lower abdomen. They give hot tea with black pepper to drink, and advise the mother to bite her own hands. To separate the placenta, pastes of Palash (Butea monosperma) roots and Apamarga (Achyranthes aspera) roots are given to drink. Latter is used for massage too. The mother eats boiled papaya for secretion of more milk, drinks boiled water always and does massage with pure mustard oil on her body and the baby. Curry of Drumstick leaves are used to address postnatal body pain. In case of any disease to the baby, the mother is treated, not the infant. A new blade is used to cut the umbilical cord. But ignoring these tested and tried safe practices Government – being under international pressure – promoted institutional delivery with huge expenditure and investment. It became a multi-thousand crore business.
Traditional medicines, our beacon
The use of traditional medicines (TM) is as old as human existence. Human beings living in the forest 2.5 million years back in the Pleistocene age, used herbs for treating different physical disorders. The traditional health system is a practice prevailing since human civilization, has wide acceptance in the society today; and has been an integral part of socio-cultural life. Despite significant development in the synthetic drug industry, the medicinal plants still constitute an important source of drugs all over the world.
The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) estimated that 70-90% of the population of developing countries relies on traditional medicine, mainly plant drugs (Report of Task Force on Conservation of Medicinal Plants, Government of India). There is growing appreciation throughout the world for greater use of the Indian System of Medicine (ISM) to provide comparatively cost-effective and safer health care. Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) predominantly uses plant-based raw materials in most of their preparations and formulations. It is not out of ignorance or blind belief that people are taking to TM as generally stated by progressive experts of modern civilization. To state in the words of W.H.O., “In developing countries, the broad use of TM is often attributable to its accessibility and affordability…In many developed countries, popular use of Alternative medicines is fuelled by concerns about adverse effects of chemical drugs, questioning of the approaches and assumptions of allopathic medicine and greater public access to health information…..”
W.H.O. defines Traditional Medicine as a “comprehensive term used to refer both to TM systems such as traditional Chinese medicine, Indian Ayurveda and Arabic Unani medicine. TM therapies include medication therapies – if they involve the use of herbal medicines, animal parts and/or minerals”. In other words, “Taking refuge in Nature to repair any disorder in physical or mental systems by undergoing any appropriate natural therapeutic processes with or without medication or application of both, resulting in healing that roots out the cause of the disease can be defined as Traditional Medicine.”
But the irony is that even today Ayurvedic practitioners, in their habit of closing their doors to new ideas and innovations, have neglected the age-old traditional knowledge on health which is the mother of Ayurveda. This is the same way as Allopath even today does not recognize Ayurveda as an effective treatment process. This was a decision taken in British raj to promote their Allopathy market. The same mindset continued in independent India within the Government and medical profession. Traditional knowledge of health is therefore yet to be integrated into the primary health care system. Few Ayurvedic medicines, among the 2000+ varieties of medicines marketed by Ayurvedic companies, are drugs certified by Indian Council of Medical Research (I.C.M.R.). Due to vehement opposition of Indian Medical Association (I.M.A.), a small no. of Ayurvedic or Homeopathic doctors is officially in charge of any Primary Health Centre (PHC). Even though millions die due to the absence of doctors in PHCs, Union and State Governments are in helpless conditions before the monopolistic authority of I.M.A. and their supported Indian Druggists and Chemists Association. Jointly together they have been able to checkmate the growth of alternative systems of medicines. In connivance with unethical top Government Authorities, trade of spurious medicines is mushrooming through parallel channels amounting to ten lakh crore rupees a year in India.
The traditional healers have been completely ignored and harassed repeatedly by State health departments and Forest departments for collecting herbs from forest. Who cared that they were providing service at the doorstep with nominal charges till recent days! 60% of the patients in rural India are treated by traditional healers in the absence of which primary health centres would have been overburdened (W.H.O.).
Science requires objectivity, precision and rigor. Ayurvedic degree holders’ and researchers’ deep faith, humility, and assertion* to science is the dire need to regain the lost glory of traditional medicine and Ayurveda.
*(https://theprint.in/health/unethical-unreasonable-to-ignore-ayurveda-for-covid-treatment-prevention-say-researchers/422541/)
Being a conscious citizen
The nexus of the health market, bureaucracy, polity, and media is creating wrong impressions. The civil society interventions have been negligible, irrespective of best efforts by the best of the persons in this country. Such efforts languish because of neglect by the authorities. A number of genuine senior administrative officers raised their voice many a time, being within the system. They cooperated with the NGOs to improve the situation by creating models, improving the pro-people policies and indirectly supporting the resentments raised by the public.
Ironically, thousands of research findings, public committee reports, seminars and workshop presentations have not been able to improve the health conditions. Civil society is divided due to various reasons (wrong or right), grown weak and obsessed with personal gains. No systematic organizational process could therefore be built up to set the motion right. It is essential to properly assist the governments in right thinking on this most sensitive issue of the Indian citizens.
Time is ripe now. Let us give a clarion call and set a mission to take Health from ‘Market’ to ‘Service’, ultimately leading to ‘Praxis’ of every person. There is a need for making health a public agenda – beyond advocacy to the common concern of all considering human beings, not as an isolated individual but as an indivisible part of the entire creation.
Health is to be holistic. Health care is for the healthy and active participatory development of all. Like any right, health must be asserted rather than given or taken. All stakeholders, contributing to human development and services including the people should partner in the process of development of structures and services; of physical, psychological and behavioural health of the individual; community health in the villages and slums; public health in societal and governmental set-ups; environmental health, health of the economy, health of the politics and health of the civilization in the entire globe; which is deteriorating at a geometric progression. Stratification of the Health Problem is essential as it will help for the planning and development of a sound control strategy to maximize the utilization of available resources. It can also provide guidelines as to which strategy could be most suited and economical under the existing conditions.
A Process in Community Health Care
1. Challenges of providing basic needs (food, water, sanitation, etc.) and primary health care for all
i. Ensure sustainable livelihood sources by reviving the village economy
ii. Ensure food security, to avoid malnutrition not by providing subsidized rice but through ensuring effective public distribution system and officially recognizing the role of the rural working class
iii. Ensure water supply by reviving traditional water bodies like ponds, stepwells and rivers
iv. Ensure effective health assessment by individuals so that they recognize unhealthy, unhygienic conditions and disease symptoms.
v. Remember the most relevant learning – how did people get immunity conscious when they faced Corona? How did health consciousness become part of their daily life?
vi. Make every house a health hub with herbal garden, every kitchen a lab of preparing healthy food
vii. Make village and Gram Panchayat health plans and train efficient persons from the community to implement these plans
2. Inter and intra-sectoral field coordination and establishment of harmonious relationships and meaningful linkages among Government departments, research and academic institutions, social-economic–cultural organizations.
3. Involvement of civil society organizations and technical institutions in implementation as well as other activities (like training, monitoring, evaluation, playing an advocacy role, etc.)
4. Medical pluralism: reviving home remedies and integration of such a system into primary health care
Objectives of the Process
a. To provide health education so that the community grows to be the primary stakeholder of the Public Health System
b. Make people self-reliant on the treatment of common ailments through home remedies, growing home herbal gardens, community, and school medicinal gardens, taking training on the application of the plants as medicines
c. Influence governments’ policy formulation, strategy for implementation through promoting village institutions
d. Influence adequate provisioning and financing for institutions for realistic education and training of health service providers like doctors, nurses, technicians, etc
e. To control future epidemiological diseases by creating awareness and community action for public health systems
f. To change the health-seeking behaviour so that every person knows how to remain healthy and be a doctor of the self in case of an ailment. One should know about modifications required in lifestyle, the diets, application of plants and therapies for the prevention and cure of general diseases
g. To effect attitudinal change towards client orientation so that a new sensitivity is created for community health
Strategy of the Process
1. Advocacy for a shared vision for change in ideas/ attitudes at various levels & structures
2. Building Partnerships and Stakeholdership among Government Departments, Institutions, Organizations
3. Comprehensive Capacity Development of Communities and various health workers
4. Decentralized Planning, Execution & Management for community convergent actions
5. Effective Communication for Change in Health seeking Behaviour of rural community
6. Fostering a Healthy Environment free from communicable diseases
7. Growing as compassionate human beings (Kindness and contentment lead to rise in Health Development Index)
8. Holistic and integrated package of Health programmes at Block and Panchayat level
9. Inter-sectoral coordination and convergence for effective implementation of Health programs
Steps to enhance client sensitive services
(a) Community-level
i. House to house survey to document baseline incidence of the problem
ii. Take up PHC wise Random Health Survey (RHS) to assess the actual status of medical services and public health programmes in the catchments. Also, document health-seeking behaviour in the community and current status of demand and supply. Organize rigorous training of health volunteers and select full-time health activists. Change agents/ Community activists are to be created in every village that will work with the village health committee and coordinate the efforts of the village with higher-level institutions so that a successful implementation of the village health plan takes place. A health information booklet may be created for every panchayat which shall be distributed. An awareness campaign to impart knowledge, skills and technique can be thought of.
iii. Form/ activate village committees on health, livelihood, and environment involving concerned Departments, institutions and community to develop an integrated village micro plan for model villages. Institute a mechanism of inbuilt complaint redressal and continuous improvement in the health system & services. Initiate disease surveillance and community reporting system at the village level. Voluntary and participative intelligence system at the grass-root level to gather information on the actual situation from field to monitor and evaluate the system, and services regularly.
iv. Communication for behaviour change using Information Technology as an effective tool for health, hygiene, and nutrition-related issues to transform the community from beneficiary to stakeholder. Facilitate community for problem diagnosis, identification of solutions, and prioritization of interventions and management of implementation. Communication through culturally appropriate mechanism (person to person, peer to peer) can be done utilizing local artists and local art forms to give key messages.
v. Hygienic environment can be ensured in the village and waste management teams can be created to make the neighbourhood clean. Facilitate interface of Government, PRIs, Community, Women SHGs, Academic & Research Institutions, NGOs, Corporate, Insurance, and banks at PHC level to address health issues. Ensure that these interactions result in the constitution of representatives at Village/ Panchayat/ Block level Health, Hygiene, and Nutrition Committees.
vi. Identification and capacity building of volunteers and key health activists viz Anganwadi Worker (AWW), Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHAs), Traditional Birth Attendant (TBAs), and traditional healers to support health activists in the documentation of the problem; planning and delivery of interventions; monitoring and evaluation of inputs, outputs, throughputs, and outcomes.
vii. Promote the use of home/terrace/kitchen gardens Involving women and children. Model herbal plantation for and by the unemployed youth on private land. Its cultivation by community and self-help group on community land.
viii. Advocacy and inter-sectoral coordination for convergence and effective implementation of development programs including water & sanitation to address environmental & livelihood factors in disease transmission in each village. It is a continuous full-time task for experts. Set up of intensive community-based disease surveillance mechanism in villages to actively treat and positively monitor the incidence of disease occurrences. Enhance the capacity of villagers to access health services. Community-level interventions to ensure source reduction.
ix. Village Health Institution for knowledge sharing: Incubation for people to learn at their own pace. Scope for an illiterate folk to imagine, create, innovate and act on prevention and cure. This will save the community from quacks, spurious medicines, and minimize its out of pocket expenses on health. Campaign for a reduction in the use of spurious medicines and exploitation by quacks. Training of Traditional Health Practitioners (THP) in primary health care under WHO guidelines. Organize a tour of Health experts to make the community conscious about their rights, duties, and responsibilities concerning public health facilities.
x. Motivate senior level students and teachers of Health training Institutions in the state to undertake extension activities in remote tribal belts, provide necessary amenities for them and create a decentralized paramedical team for these Medical Extension Activities (MEA)
(b) Institutional level
i. Interface between community health systems and allied sectors on local health care needs; level of demand; type and quantity of resources needed and available; problems and priorities in the health sector; possible solutions and their implementation to ensure delivery of health care, involving various stakeholders. Work towards convergence of various departmental programmes like health, safe drinking water, hygiene, nutrition, food security, livelihoods, and socio – economic development.
ii. Run village health centres by barefoot health providers/ traditional healers with laboratory and multi-institutional support system. Tribal patients have a habit of not taking medicines at the proper time and not adhering to a diet. Ultimately it affects the treatment and research process. Indoor facilities will help to take care of it.
iii. Monitoring of patients at domiciliary and institutional levels to ensure adherence to the treatment protocol, clinical impact, and early identification of treatment failure, relapse, and documentation. Monitor that the services provided are open and equal; free from sectarian or parochial differentiations, and propaganda.
Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of intervention inputs; envisaged outputs; expected outcomes to help in problem resolution; review assessment; course correction; expansion, and multiplication.
iv. Process documentation of discussion; decision making; plan of action; implementation at the field level; views of the community; constraints faced; modifications to action process; results achieved and lessons learned will enable clear understanding; wide participation; sustained interest; dialogue – debate and finally motivate stakeholders to share financial responsibility for public health institutions and service centres.
v. Advocacy for School curriculum on medicinal plants and primary health care. Training on cultivation practices for community & herbal kits for home gardens.
vi. Create gardens in schools, hospitals, and other institutional premises.
Performance Indicators of this process
1. PHC (Primary Health Care) wise status paper with a note of stakeholder interactions held and short-range & long-range achievements resulting from the implementation of resolutions taken during interactions.
2. Volunteers trained; Local Health Forums (LHFs) formed and how many of them are actively responsible.
3. Local level policy dialogues and resolutions to change the implementation mechanism of the Health Mission.
4. Instances of acceptance of the active role of community in the delivery of public health programmes.
5. No. of herbal gardens created in homes, fallow land and institution premises with no. of persons who learnt the art.
6. No. of persons who learnt and practiced acupressure, yoga, etc. in normal life and to cure common ailments.
7. Some villages in which community monitoring and reporting systems have been instituted.
8. Development of simpler & effective means of administering medicines based on epidemiological consideration.
9. Creation of internal expertise facilitated by context-wise external inputs in the institutional process.
10. Students capacitated as change agents, technology adopters, promoters, social entrepreneurs.
11. Communities facilitated to diagnose problems; identify solutions; prioritize interventions and manage the implementation.
12. No. of Community Health Institutions created for knowledge sharing with the involvement of partners, ensuring quality at all levels – the selection of right people, dialogue at appropriate levels and consistent performance.
Outcomes of this process
i. Enhanced and Equitable Health Outcomes- Increase Demand for and Enable Supply of Client Oriented Health Services for total control of disease incidence and Malnutrition.
ii. Work with the community to increase their capacity to assess the key health problems they face; services available to them. It’ll enable them to partner in planning and monitoring health service provision leading to a change in their health-seeking behaviour and the quality of services rendered to them in an equitable and accountable manner.
iii. In consonance with Alma Ata Declaration of World Health Organization 1978, community mobilization and capacity building should focus on:
– Ensuring equality of access to health-related information and affordable health services
– Ensuring the rights of communities to plan and implement health care initiatives
– Capacitate communities with knowledge and capacity to make and act on health decisions
– Establishing mechanisms to enable, accept and support community decisions
– Support communities to address their health needs by using local, state and national resources.
Health is simple, and for all
Medical treatment is not always a complex matter that can only be dealt with in huge infrastructures by certified doctors after costly tests by ultra-modern instruments, and through heavy antibiotic medicines produced by pharmaceutical companies for each element of the body, followed by surgeries done to meet targets set by hospitals.
Accusing the Government systems and Market mechanisms and still expecting from them to behave responsibly is a futile endeavour. Our focus should be on building model health-conscious persons. Such conscious persons on holistic health belonging to any community, group or congregation may come forward from time to time to assist the Government system and Market forces in rightful thinking that decentralized processes are essential at the grass-root level to sensitize the community on healthy living and create an environment for it.
The World looks up to Indian traditional wisdom systems on physical and psychological health. The visions, the dimensions, the mechanisms enumerated in scriptures and practiced universally are to be updated through authentic documentation, standardization, scientific validation with clinical tests. It can be done in small experiment centres without the help of costly laboratories or imported machines.
The exploration of these possibilities can open new vistas in the health sector. After having a brush with Corona, can we not make strides to free Health from the clutches of self-serving Market and restore it to everyone’s praxis, as visualized by the seers of yore?
This can happen when we rise above the fear psychosis of pain and death – the most powerful ammunition in the hands of a greedy market and an oblivious Government. We get frightened and succumb to carefully portrayed provocations. It requires courage and tranquility to understand that pain is an inseparable part of life just like pleasure is. Death is a transition from one life to the other. It is a blissful journey. We must face it with a smile and welcome it! We can. I have read it in scriptures in childhood, heard from Rishis in the Himalayas in adolescence but learnt it by living for years with the indigenous communities across the country.
Our Life Force: Our Health
Man is a product of Nature. Life manifests itself in Matter and Mind, which appeared in Life in the course of evolution. The Soul resides in the body and acts as a physician, who knows and understands the disease of his patient, but is not touched by the disease. The soul is also a link between man’s past and future life. Body has self-healing capacity at its own pace provided it listens to the calls of the soul or inner self. Man has three distinct personalities– the Mind, the Vital or the Life, and the Body. The harmony among them is essential for health and healing. Any treatment process is secondary.
Body is basically a composition of Acid and Alkaline. Any imbalance in the Humors of the body like Vata or Air, Pitta or Gastric Juice and Kaph or Saliva creates the disease. Balance in above three humors can address any metabolic disorder or disease. A syndrome is a set of medical signs and symptoms which are correlated with each other and often associated with a particular disease or disorder.
Body suffers in diseases because of basically three types of disorders
1. Humoral disorder
2. Constitutional disorder
3. Functional disorder
It is ironic that modern medicine gives too much focus on the germs and body as a machine but no attention is paid to the ground on which this germ grows. Laboratory knowledge is most helpful and invaluable so far as it goes. But real experience in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease is available in the clinics. What are designated as ‘Scientific Methods’ practiced in laboratories, are threatening to displace the art and science of healing. Disease reveals itself by its symptoms and the earliest signs are manifested by sensations and feelings of the sick himself. These symptoms cannot be analysed in a laboratory. A brief clinical experience will prove that microorganisms do not behave in the same manner, especially in the human body. Their actions vary according to the vitality of the patient radiating energy. This vitality or energy of life flows from and exists on protoplasm. This protoplasm is not a chemical compound but a complex organisation of life. Our body is basically composed of millions and millions of cells. Protoplasm is the basis for the formation and functioning of these living organisms or cells. When these cells are damaged due to wrong activities or lifestyles the system of body, mind and vitality fails. That leads to diseases. Healthcare systems are supposed to create an environment in the body and outside so that these cells get normalised, function at peace and restore their activities in synergy with laws of Nature.
This author, in 1981 after graduation, was working with Mother Teresa. He met with a serious accident, got multiple fractures in leg. The then top orthopedic doctor in Calcutta took 5 months but failed to join the tibia and fibula bones even though I had to undergo a tremendously painful treatment process. I, with a strong will power and conviction returned to Odisha and left myself in the hands of an ignorant tribal healer. In an easy and comfortable method within 20 days he made me fit to cycle and run. In 1993 a lady film director fell from top of a building in a Connaught Place building (New Delhi) and got her backbone broken and disc displaced. After conducting all tests, All India Institute of Medical Science doctors expressed inability to cure fully. On my request this aged tribal healer took responsibility and cured her 99% in three months incurring minimal expenditure. So much so the AIIMS doctors’ team came all the way from Delhi to Kalupada, a village in Odisha with huge instruments to research on the therapy and medication. But the old man died and with him the precious wisdom had gone. In 1998 I met with another accident and my collar bones broke into pieces. The Head of Orthopedics, Medical College, Cuttack said that total expenditure would come around Rs 1 lakh but there is no guarantee of full cure. I reposed faith in another traditional healer, a retired forest official, who used to see an average 200 cases per day at no cost. He treated me with simple methods and applications with a total expenditure of Rs. 67 only. Within one month I was fully cured. The entire month I was working without any bed rest.
Due to tremendous pressure of tribal and peasant movements against multinational companies and injustices by state administration, by 2003 I had developed gastrointestinal disease. It was followed by intensive chest pain, low blood pressure and diabetes. I decided to listen to my inner voice and treat myself. I changed my lifestyle and focused on long breathing, asanas and mostly pranayam. Additional Director General of Health, Government of India, while operating on my eyes in 2008, after all test reports, expressed astonishment on how I could get rid of such diseases which if once developed according to Allopathy cannot be eradicated from the body. In 2011 a famous dental expert, who worked in WHO, after conducting all tests declared that 16 of your teeth must be removed maximum within a year. I treated myself with simple home remedies. After four years in 2015 he was stunned to find that all my teeth were working in place. Since super cyclone 1999 I have never fallen ill or bedridden irrespective of my hazardous work style, nomadic lifestyle and work alcoholic character for the deprived and marginalised (being one among them) because I listen to my body and treat as the mind commands and the soul indicates.
Case Study: A collective journey
Tribal regions of Odisha were grappling with Cerebral malaria in the year 2010. It is commonly known as brain malaria, and considered the most severe pathology caused by the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.
Death toll reached an alarming proportion. The State Government was under severe pressure. Dr. Ajit Tripathy (the then Chief Secretary of Odisha), Shri Prasanna Kumar Hota (the then Secretary, Ministry of Health) and Ms Anita Dash (the then Secretary, Department of AYUSH, Govt of India) assigned responsibility and gave a daunting project to the author. He started searching for an effective cure.
Decades ago CCRAS (Central Council of Research in Ayurveda & Siddha) had developed a formulation named Ayush-64, prepared from four different types of indigenously available herbs. The herbs were Saptaparna (Alstonia scholaris), Kutki (Picrorhiza Kurroa), Chirata (Swertia chirata) and Kuberaksha (Caesalphinia crista). Its efficacy was reported in conditions like Vishamjvara (malarial fever), Shleepada (microfilaremia) and chikungunya. The medicine was found to be very effective in the safe treatment during the malaria epidemic in Rajasthan (1994) and Assam (1996). It was used in 3600 fever cases in Rajasthan and 2294 fever cases in Assam.
Author had a staunch belief in Traditional Medicine (TM). He along with his team served ailing people tirelessly during 2010 – 14. The team bought Ayush-64 tablets from IMPCL (Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation Limited at Almora, Uttarakhand).
68730 patients (19266 malaria + 49464 others) recovered in hospital (indoor & outdoor) and 1063 camps, proving the efficacy of the drug with a scientific rigour and precision. The team was honoured by the Ministry of Ayush, Govt. of India. In 2014 National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) entered into License Agreements with private sector companies for commercialization of Ayush-64.
The significance of traditional medicine does not stop at commercial license. It is for people, of people, by Mother Nature. How well TM is woven in our lives, can be understood by the case of Chirata (Swertia chirata), the main ingredient of Ayush-64. It has a wide spectrum of pharmacological properties.
The whole plant is widely used by local people for the treatment of hepatitis, inflammation, and digestive diseases. The wide range of medicinal uses include the treatment of chronic fever, malaria, anemia, bronchial asthma, hepatotoxic disorders, liver disorders, hepatitis, gastritis, constipation, dyspepsia, skin diseases, worms, epilepsy, ulcers, scanty urine, hypertension, melancholia, and certain types of mental disorders, secretion of bile, blood purification, and diabetes. Its medicinal usage is well-documented in Indian pharmaceutical codex, the British, and the American pharmacopoeias and in different traditional medicine such as the Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha etc.
Medicinal plants were loyal to us in our times of distress. An advisory by the Ministry of Ayush suggested usage of Ayush-64 for Corona in October 2020!
Acknowledgment: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4709473/