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Bengal

AYUSH ministry ties up with WHO to develop benchmark for practice abroad

Kolkata: The Union AYUSH ministry, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), will develop a benchmark for practice of Ayurveda, Panchakarma and Unani systems abroad.

A high level meeting was held between the ministry and WHO in Jaipur on Monday in this regard. As a part of its global strategy to promote the country's oldest mode of treatment in foreign countries, the AYUSH ministry has signed a memorandum-of-understanding (MoU) with WHO a few months ago.

One of the main purposes behind developing the benchmark is to provide safe, effective and accessible traditional medicine to the global community. The benchmark documents are included in the Project Collaboration Agreement (PCA) between World Health Organisation (WHO) and ministry of AYUSH.

According to a senior official of the AYUSH ministry, the benchmark will help formulate some standard norms, which should be followed by all the countries where the Indian traditional forms of treatment would be practiced. Around 39 experts representing 18 countries and as many as 13 experts each from Ayurveda, Panchakarma and Unani would be reviewing the draft document, developed by WHO through consultative process.

Some new regulations will be framed which will give a detailed outline on who are eligible for AYUSH treatment abroad and what parameters they should follow. The Centre is trying to promote AYUSH outside India so that the oldest form of treatment can be practiced more rationally and in its true spirit.

Working group meetings of WHO are scheduled to take place between September 17-19. The three-day programme with four sessions each day, has been organised

by ministry of AYUSH, in coordination with the National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), Jaipur.

The purposes of the meeting are to review, comment and revise the draft documents prepared by the experts. This is aimed at arriving at an international consensus regarding the structure and content of each of the documents.

The documents are expected to provide necessary requirements for qualified practice by practitioners of Ayurveda, Panchakarma and Unani. The benchmark would also allow the national authorities to establish or strengthen regulatory standards to ensure qualified practice of such systems and also patient safety.

Union AYUSH secretary Rajesh Kotecha said: "We

have tied up with the WHO to promote the oldest forms

of treatment abroad. The National Ayurveda Morbidity Standardised Terminology Engine is being actively used for documentation of AYUSH facilities. A standard terminology is being prepared so that traditional forms of treatment can be done in foreign countries".

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