Homeopathy: Easy and Affordable Therapy | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Introduction

• President of India, Droupadi Murmu, inaugurated a two-day Homoeopathy Symposium in New Delhi, marking World Homoeopathy Day. The event, organized by the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy, highlighted the benefits and potential of homeopathy. Homeopathy, founded by German physician Samuel Hahnemann in the late 18th century, offers cost-effective, palatable, and seemingly side-effect-free medicines. Its approach often focuses on prescribing based on patient symptoms rather than expensive clinical treatments. 
• Homeopathy has shown efficacy in treating various conditions including psychosomatic disorders, auto-immune diseases, geriatric and pediatric disorders, pregnancy-related issues, skin diseases, lifestyle disorders, and allergies. This year's World Homeopathy Day theme, "Empowering Research, Enhancing Proficiency," emphasized the importance of advancing research in the field.

Homeopathy

• Introduced to India in 1839 by Austrian physician M. Honigberger, homeopathy operates on the principle of treating "like with like," where a substance causing symptoms in a healthy person is used to treat similar symptoms in an ill individual. 
• It emphasizes holistic and individualized treatment tailored to each patient's unique characteristics.

Efficacy and safety of homeopathy

Despite its popularity, evidence supporting homeopathy's efficacy remains weak. Double-blind randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews have cast doubt on its clinical significance. Concerns have been raised about reporting bias and the quality of evidence generated by many trials, with the World Health Organization cautioning against its use in serious conditions such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, flu, and infant diarrhea.

AYUSH's role in realizing the vision of 'New India':

• Recent initiatives have been launched to promote AYUSH.
• AYUSH wings are being established in defense and railway hospitals.
• Soft loans and subsidies are provided for setting up private AYUSH hospitals and clinics.
• Institutes of excellence in AYUSH teaching and research are being established.
• 12,500 dedicated AYUSH health and wellness centers are planned under the Ayushman Bharat mission.
• AYUSH represents a diverse and integrative approach to healthcare services. It can contribute significantly to building a 'Healthy India' by offering quality healthcare and medical services rooted in traditional systems.
• With India facing a severe shortage of doctors, AYUSH provides an avenue to increase healthcare accessibility.
• The growing popularity of AYUSH could also enhance medical tourism in India.

Challenges

• Non-integration into mainstream medicine: AYUSH's limited presence in the current healthcare mix is a challenge. Efforts to integrate AYUSH have mainly focused on increasing its facilities rather than evaluating its effectiveness.
• Status gap: AYUSH faces challenges due to its perceived lower status and issues like dishonest practices, leading to skepticism.
  • Historical resistance to integration from within and outside the AYUSH sector.
  • Isolationist approach hindering scientific scrutiny and potential value addition.
• Quality standards of medicines: Despite investment, scientific validation of AYUSH remains limited.
• Lack of human resources: Practitioners are seeking better opportunities outside traditional systems.
• Underutilization of existing infrastructure.

Way forward

• Adopt a pluralistic approach in medicine to decolonize healthcare.
• Focus on gathering scientific evidence for the safety and efficacy of AYUSH practices.
• Invest in capacity building and training competent professionals in AYUSH.
• Pursue true integration of traditional and modern systems through cross-learning and collaboration.
• Follow the example of China in integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine with Western medicine.
• Develop a framework for integrating education, research, and practice of both systems.
• Create a middle path that fuses traditional and modern systems while allowing autonomy.
• Develop a medium- and long-term plan for seamless integration to achieve universal healthcare goals.