With the world population swelling at a fast rate and public
healthcare facilities becoming a core topic of discussion, there is a renewed
interest to strengthen the potential of traditional medicine to improve the
healthcare access for people. Intertwined with this subject is the need to
conserve the biological resources that form the source for traditional
medicine.
The point was raised in a paper presented at a panel
discussion on ‘Role of AYUSH and Local Health Traditions for a Healthier India’
organised by the South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy at the Centre
for the Study of Developing Societies, in collaboration with the Institute of
Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, and Foundation for Revitalisation of Local
Health Traditions, Bangalore.
“As the medical armamentarium primarily consists of
biological resources, it is important to also ensure their sustainable use,”
the paper on ‘Biodiversity, Traditional Knowledge and Community Health:
Strengthening the Linkages’ said.
According to the paper, the International Union for
Conservation of Nature’s Medicinal Plant Specialist group estimates that
between 50,000 to 70,000 plant species are in active medical use, of which
around 25 per cent are threatened. The paper cited a range of activities that were
being undertaken across the world to protect these medicinal plants, including
several in India but added that these practices were still restricted to
pockets of the projects’ activities, and it was time that their relevance in
global health and related policies be highlighted and understood. While
replication of these models may not be feasible across various socio-cultural
contexts, their principles can be easily modified to suit local realities.
“Clearly, the focus needs to be on ensuring sustained
availability of biological resources and sufficient access to good quality
health care for all members of society. In rural communities, especially in
developing countries, both objectives tend to go together given that to a
considerable extent, healthcare is delivered by the native healers or community
health workers within the communities — using various biological interventions
for the purpose. Given the low reach of modern doctors and healthcare
facilities and the knowledge and experience possessed by the local healers, it
becomes imperative to involve the latter more actively in healthcare delivery
systems,” the paper said, adding that there was also increasing interest among
urban populations seeking alternative healthcare, and hence, there was relevance
in providing a diversity of choices.
It was suggested that there was a need for developing
assessment methods to inventory resources and knowledge used in healthcare and
knowledge validation, generation and use. To achieve this, there is a need to
develop and promote appropriate integrative methodologies for assuring quality,
safety and efficacy of traditional practices based on standards within and
across medical system. Capacity building for different stakeholders and
development of mechanisms for protection of traditional resources and knowledge
and promoting enterprise development based on medicinal and nutritional
resources and services, and expansion of partnerships with different
stakeholders are some of the issues that need to be given more attention.
Traditional medicine is practised both non-formally as local
healing traditional healers/shamans, and formally through recognised medical
systems distinct from the western system of medicine like ayurveda, Chinese
medical system, siddha, and unani to name a few. Despite the differences in
approaches in these diverse medical systems, it can be pointed out that they
share a common philosophy to health and healing, defined by their focus on
“non-material’’ or “non-physical’’ dimensions, and a comprehensive approach to
dimensions to health keeping in mind physical, mental, social and ecological
factors of well-being. Health in this approach largely pertains to not just
physical healing but also involves a mosaic of practices and resources that
relate to mind-body-nature balance, nutrition, lifestyle practices and
livelihood.
Keywords: plant
species, traditional
medicine system
Aarti Dhar
Data: 09.09.2012
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