India has great opportunity in health tourism sector: Ayush Secy Vidya Rajesh Kotecha

Mr. Vidya Rajesh Kotecha Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH,speaking on the occasion of 8th edition of Ayurveda Day. He said Ayurveda Day started in 2016. Every Dhanvantari Jayanti i.e., Dhanteras, Ayurveda Day is being celebrated and this year we are celebrating Ayurveda Day with the theme of ‘Ayurveda for one health’. And this Ayurveda for one health is basically based on the India G20 presidency. We have this Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and One Earth One Family that was the theme.

So,based on that we have visualised this Ayurveda Day. The theme is Ayurveda for one health. And this is basically to evaluate and explore the human, animal and plant and environment interface and relationship and its impact on health and Ayurveda is basically talking about all those things by mentioning Yat Pinde Tat Brahmande like whatever is inside in our system is already in Brahmand i.e., the universe. So, we are all connected with the universe and Ayurveda is based on this thing.
 
Vidya R. Kotecha said that Ayurveda for Farmers is a part of this basic theme of Ayurveda for One Health. Because Ayurveda is plant based. One of the important areas of Ayurveda for one health is Ayurveda for farmers, then Ayurveda for students, and Ayurveda for public health. So, we are looking at all these possibilities to explore and one of the important aspects is Ayurveda for farmers.
 
He also talked about the celebration of Ayurveda Day. Mr Kotecha said that this year’s Ayurveda Day is on 10th of November that is on Dhanvantari Jayanti, Dhanteras and as a matter of fact this Ayurveda Day is already being celebrated in preparatory activities are going on like we have developed a micro website Ayurvedaday.org.in and there is an interesting statistic that came out like for the reporting on this website. There are more than 17,000 activities that have already happened.

There are 13,00,00,000 people who have played the ‘I support ayurveda’ on this microsite from 95 countries. These 13,00,00,000 participants are from 95 countries. This year we have made a goal of participation from more than 100 countries on Ayurveda Day. Already 95 has been crossed and then there are pledges.

So more than 100,000 people have taken pledge. Activities like national poster competitions, quiz competitions on MyGov platform, short video competitions, essay competitions. There were bike rallies and across the country, 48 places were bike rallies or run for Ayurveda in more than 100 places, health camps at more than 1000 places, public lectures in more than 10,000 places. 

He said that this is very interesting because people are very much enthusiastic about Ayurveda and these activities in addition like distribution of medicine plant or sensitisation program for the farmers or buyer-seller meet for the medical plant or students sensitisation program, then Ayurvedic colleges are there, they are participating and they have big celebrations.

So, across the country, across the globe, this event is being organised and largely it is for the sensitisation of the people and then to showcase the strength of Ayurveda and then in public health and for the student’s benefit or for the farmer’s benefit.
 
He also said that the Ministry of Ayush is having National Medicinal Plant Board. This National Medicinal Plant Board is an apex body to have convergence and communication with different ministries like Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India or Ministry of Environment and Forest or Panchayati Raj. So, wherever there is an activity related to any cultivation or particularly medicine plant cultivation, it is being coordinated by the Medicine Plant Board and they have a lot of different schemes and activities related to creating supply chain ecosystems from farmers to the industry.
 
Mr Kotecha said that India has a great possibility in the area of health tourism. That is why with the support of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, there is a big activity going on under the leadership of the honorable Health Minister and honorable AYUSH Minister, known as Heal in India. So this medical value travel is, India is becoming a destination. As of now, India is number 10 provider of medical value travel. So, people are coming from all over the world but we want to become number one in next few years and AYUSH has a big role because there are thousands of people coming to India for panchakarma and yoga and they are all from wealthy countries. That is why the Government of India has recently declared this provision of AYUSH visa.
 
He said, if somebody wants to come to India they can have an E-visa of AYUSH treatments or Yoga retreats. And they can come to India and then they can stay and they can get these treatments. This facilitation plays a big role in the booming requirement or demand of the AYUSH services in our country.