“The government is not striving for a revival of public interest in Ayurveda for nothing. The objective is to promote a national way of life marked by appropriate relationship between human beings and their environment. That is the only way to reduce the burden placed by Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) on the scarce resources of the country and Ayurveda is key to that.” With these words, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister, inaugurated the first government-organised World Ayurveda Congress here today. With him on the stage was Mrs Sumitra Mahajan, Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
There was a strong international presence also. The foreign dignitaries included Mr Zohid Maleque- Minister of State, Bangladesh, Mr Khagaraj Adhikari, Health Minister of Nepal, Dr Mohamed Habeeb, Deputy Minister, Maldives, Mr X K Djalilov, Deputy Minister, Uzbekistan, Dr Vijay Bhatkar, Chairperson, Vigyan Bharati and senior officials from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Maldives, Slovenia, and Trinidad & Tobago. More than 4,000 delegates including 400 from abroad are participating in the event. Dr Harsh Vardhan remarked that when the present government took over office in May this year, only about Rs 167 crore out of a total outlay of Rs 1,200 crore was spent by the Department of AYUSH. But now, thanks to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s insistence on giving Ayurveda and other traditional forms of medicine their rightful place in the mainstream of India’s healthcare, the outlay has gone up to Rs 5,000 crore. This will lead to considerable growth in the number of research and treatment facilities and upgradation of the existing infrastructure, the Minister said. Experts drawn from India, Germany, Italy, USA, Argentina, Russia, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Cambodia and many other countries heard the Minister warn that unless the writing on the wall is heeded, an entire generation will be emasculated soon by hypertension, high blood cholesterol, diabetes and obesity.
