NEW DELHI: An advisory by the Centre has asked academicians and researchers who are not associated with Indian traditional health care streams to stay away from research related to Ayurveda, Yoga, Sidhha, Homeopathy and Unani systems of medicine. The AYUSH Ministry, in the advisory issued on April 2, suggested that “independent” researches often question the credibility of alternative modes of medicine.
“Potential and scope of AYUSH in public healthcare cannot be jeopardised and the people may not be distracted or dissuaded from resorting to AYUSH from arbitrary statements and unfounded conclusions in the scientific studies and research publications related to AYUSH,” said the advisory. Scientists and health researchers, expectedly, are irked with the development.
S C Lakhotia, a renowned zoologist from Banaras Hindu University, said, “The government is putting a question mark on independent researchers and prestigious scientific journals which is regressive. Also, the problem with traditional methods of healing is that they have not undergone strict scientific trials and by doing this, the government will further damage the credibility of these methods of medicine.”