Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated a regional review meeting of six States/UT’s of the western region

 

Mumbai: 'The Regional Review Meeting', fourth in the row after Eastern, Madhya, and Southern zone, on the National Ayush Mission for six States/UTs, organized in Mumbai today brought together officials and representatives of Ayush from states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, Goa and UTs - Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu.

'This Regional Review Meeting' was inaugurated by Union Minister of Ayush and Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shri. Sarbananda Sonowal. The Union Minister of State for Ayush & Women and Child Development, Dr. Munjpara Mahendrabhai along with Secretary of Ayush Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Ayush, Shri. Jaideep Kumar, Joint Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary, Public Health Department, Govt. of Maharashtra, Milind Mhaiskar and Rajeev Nivatkar, Commissioner, Medical Education, Maharashtra also graced the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri. Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of Ayush and Ports, Shipping & Waterways lauded the richness of India's ancient healing system and reiterated Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji's sincere efforts of reviving the profound knowledge of our ancient systems of medicine and ensuring the optimal development and propagation of the Ayush systems of healthcare.

Talking about the National Ayush Mission as the flagship program of the Ministry of Ayush he said, “National Ayush Mission (NAM) is being implemented with the vision and objectives to provide Ayush health care services throughout the country by strengthening and improving Ayush health care facilities, to provide informed choice to the needy public.”

Highlighting the importance of making Ayush available for all, he said, “It is a shared responsibility to channel the support offered to States/UTs through National Ayush Mission to make this healthcare system available at the grass-root level through Jan Bhagidari”.

The Union Minister emphasized Integrative health care and said that “Modern and Traditional Medicine systems will have to go hand in hand to provide the best health care to the people”.

The Union Minister also recognized the role the World Health Organization and the Government of India playing in propagating Traditional Medicine and said that the establishment of the Global Centre of Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar Gujarat has opened new vistas of growth of scientific and evidence-based Traditional Medicine systems of India, and through flagship program like National Ayush Mission we are making sure that the benefits of traditional medicine reach to every nook and corner of the country.

Union Minister of State for Ayush & Women and Child Development, Dr. Munjpara Mahendrabhai, in his address said, “I believe we have to emphasize outcomes as a more meaningful measure of programme value than output. We may have to realign our strategies and techniques to plan, execute, and report our performance that facilitates the measure of outcomes. I am confident that such discussions will allow us to learn from each other's best practices and build a strong bond among all of us.”

Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush sharing details about the Regional Review Meetings undertaken for the National Ayush Mission said, “National Ayush Mission is a flagship scheme of Ministry of Ayush being implemented through State/UT Governments for development and promotion of Ayush systems in the country. The budgetary provisions for the NAM Scheme have also increased from 800 crore to 1200 crore. The Ministry has organized one-to-one review meetings with all States/UTs from The review meetings were attended by the Senior Officers, Commissioners, and Mission Directors of different States/UTs, and fruitful discussions were held during the review.”

Joint Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, Ms. Kavita Garg made a presentation on the progress of Ayush so far and the roadmap for Ayush for 2025.

The inaugural session concluded with a 5-minute Y-Break (Yoga Break) Common Yoga Protocol.

The program then had an interactive session where Maharashtra, Goa, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andaman & Nicobar along with Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu presented detailed overviews of the 'National Ayush Mission' in their respective region and deliberated on the salient points, way forward, success stories etc. as a part of knowledge sharing.

There were presentations by participating Research Councils/National Institutes of the Ministry of Ayush, and all the participants also observed Y-Break- a five-minute common Yoga Protocol during the breaks.