AYUSH ministry sets up 5000 health & wellness centres. Just know their Chitrakoot connection
These centres find their roots in the project Gram Swaraj that was launched in Chitrakoot by Bharat Ratna Nanaji Deshmukh between 1991 and 1998 in 500 villages.
NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) has set up 5000 AYUSH Health and Wellness Centres (AHWCs) across the country. What is, however, more interesting is the sacred connection the AHWCs have with the holy city Chitrakoot, and Bharat Ratna Nanaji Deshmukh.
Not many people know that the AHWCs find their roots in the project Gram Swaraj that was launched in Chitrakoot between 1991 and 1998 in 500 villages, to introduce interventions to make the people healthy.
Working on an ambitious mission of setting 12,500 HWCs by the year 2024 under the government’s flagship Ayushman Bharat scheme, the ministry seems all set and confident to achieve its target in the stipulated time period.
These HWCs provide primarily AYUSH Health services that focus on preventive and primitive interventions like wholesome diet, Yoga, and lifestyle modifications. It also provides treatment for common ailments using AYUSH medicines and lifestyle advice.
Cultivation of commonly available medicinal plants and their use will be promoted through AYUSH HWCs to strengthen the concept of traditional home-based remedies for common ailments.
“We want people to stay healthy, and fall ill less frequently. Their visits to swasthya kendras (wellness centers) reduce considerably. Wellness centers ensure that people stay healthy. We need to establish 12,500 Ayush health and wellness centers by 2024, and till now we have established 5000 centres so far,” said Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, AYUSH Ministry in an interview with Asian Community News (ACN) Network recently.
Under the programme, the health ministry has set a target to transform nearly 1.5 lakh primary health centres and sub-centers as health and wellness centres by 2022 to provide comprehensive and quality primary care close to the community.
AYUSH HWCs, and Chitrakoot and Nanaji Deshmukh connection:
An experiment conducted in Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh two decades back under the guidance of Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha forms the basis of the AHWC model.
Kotecha, who also happens to be an Ayurveda doctor and the former vice-chancellor of Jamnagar-based Gujarat Ayurveda University, worked with Bharat Ratna Nanaji Deshmukh on the project Gram Swaraj between 1991 and 1998. Implemented in 500 villages, the project aimed at making the people lead a healthy life, and fall ill less frequently so that the dependency on the medicines gets reduced, said Vaidya Kotecha.
“Nanaji Deshmukh had a dream of conducting an experiment that none in the country should get ill and remain healthy. He was very clear that wellness perspective was different from the treatment, and treatment is just one of the components of wellness,” said the AYUSH ministry secretary.
“The total health of a person can be achieved by working on a number of factors like economy, education, clean environment, hygiene, and clean drinking water. And for that we need wellness centres, and here the concept of wellness centers came up so that people don’t get ill, and they need not go to the doctors or hospitals, and it will impact their pockets/savings. It will have less pressure on the state exchequer as well as on the pockets of the individuals. That why we devised the model of the 12,500 wellness centers to be set up by AYUSH ministry across India to make sure people don’t fall ill,” revealed Vaidya Kotecha.
The project was launched in 500 villages, and Vaidya Kotecha was the project in-charge.
“We carried out a number of interventions on many factors and we gave the villagers smokeless burner s (chulahs) to avoid burning of wood, worked on economy upliftment under the Gram Swaraj scheme. This resulted in positive results like children dropping classes because of poor health reduced significantly. The health of women also raised their level, in men also. People would fall ill less and their visits to swasthya kendras (wellness centers) reduced considerably as they led a healthy life. Wellness centers aim at ensuring they stay healthy,” Vaidya Kotecha added.
The AYUSH Mandate:
In order to provide comprehensive primary healthcare, AYUSH components have been integrated in Health and Wellness Centres under Ayushman Bharat. These Centres will be complementing the National Health Policy, 2017 that insisted upon integration and mainstreaming of AYUSH services in the conventional health care delivery system.
It is a historic beginning in the mainstreaming of holistic, preventive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative AYUSH care for achieving comprehensive health care. The main focus of these AYUSH HWCs is on empowering the community for ‘self-care’ by imbibing AYUSH based healthy food and lifestyle, social behaviour and use of medicinal plants for primary health care.
Provisions are also being be made for diagnostics and medicines for a wide range of health problems. These services will be in addition to the currently ongoing National Health Programs.
