Need for research in traditional health care systems: Yogi

Addressing the inaugural session of Arogya Bharti annual conference, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said traditional systems of health care should be changed as per changing times

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday stressed upon the need for research in traditional health systems and data collection, from among people benefiting from the same.

Sharing statistics, the chief minister said US or Europe may be having better health infrastructure but Covid management in India was above that of several countries (Pic for representation)

“During Covid pandemic, the world understood the power of Ayush. We knew its power but it was not given due importance earlier,” said the CM, addressing the inaugural session of Arogya Bharti annual conference.

Arogya Bharati is a premier organisation dedicated to the sphere of health.

Sharing statistics, the chief minister said US or Europe may be having better health infrastructure but Covid management in India was above that of several countries. “US has one-fourth of India’s population but deaths there were one-and-a- half times more than India. The results in Europe too were not good when it came to Covid management and this shows self-discipline is important,” said the chief minister.

He said traditional systems of health care should be changed as per changing times. “We forgot the importance of research and development in our traditional medicines and practices and as a result, we do not collect data to prove their impact,” he said.

“When other countries get patents on turmeric and neem, we wake up but we have been using turmeric in our kitchens daily since decades,” he said. Similar was the case with Yoga, which came to centre stage across world after efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said. “We got Yoga Day on June 21 and now it is celebrated not only in India but in over 175 countries,” said the CM.

Sharing the work done by the state government in the field of health, Yogi said, “One lakh hectare land has been converted for natural farming, instead of chemical and fertilizer farming, in the past two years and another one lakh hectare land will connect with natural farming in the coming year. Agricultural universities have been asked to prepare labs to test and certify soil for natural farming which will save cows as well.”

“This year, there were 40 cases of encephalitis and not a single death. Earlier, there used to be over 200 deaths per year due to encephalitis,” he said.

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya, in his virtual address to the conference, said that the number of medical seats had been increased in the country. “The UG seats have gone up from about 51000 to over 96000 while PG seats from approximately 31000 to over 60000,” said the union minister.