Thaindian News

Aligarh, Feb 3 (IANS) The Indian government is making efforts to integrate alternative systems of medicine like unani into the national health care structure, Minister of State for Health S. Gandhiselvan has said.Inaugurating an international conference on Unani medicine at the Aligarh Muslim University Wednesday evening, Gandhiselvan urged the delegates to explore “how the unani system and (its) products could be made acceptable internationally”.

He appealed that “international cooperation in the area of Indian systems of medicine should be encouraged and great priority be attached to gathering evidence for them.

“The government has been making concerted efforts to integrate these systems into the national health care structure,” he said.

India is considered the world leader in alternate medical systems with the widest network of educational, research, healthcare and pharmaceutical institutions devotes to this stream.

The minister said that recent years had witnessed growing global interest in Indian medicines.

The use of plant-based drugs has increased manifold not only in the developing world but in countries like Germany, Australia, Britain, the US and Holland as well.

Hamdard University vice chancellor G.N. Qazi said: “The traditional medicine practices should be allowed in India because the majority of the population is still dependent on traditional medicine like ayurveda, unani and homeopathy.”

Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) director general S. Shakir Jamil said Unani medicine has a rich historical and cultural perspective.