World Siddha Initiative (WSI), a Forum of Siddha medical graduates working outside of Tamil Nadu, has called for the coordination of Union Ayush Ministry and Departments of Indian Medicines under all state governments for promoting the Ayush stream, Siddha, in the national level, in line with the development of Ayurveda.
The system doesn’t get any significant support either from the central Ayush ministry or from any state government. The medicine manufacturing industry and the practice side of the system needs to be bolstered and government intervention is essential.
“Siddha system is in dire straits due to lack of support from central Ayush ministry, state governments and because of indifferent attitude of the Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS). Out of the five systems in the Ayush, the union ministry is giving prominence only to one stream that is Ayurveda. Every system should get deserving status and support from the government”, said academic sources working with the Forum.
They have pointed out that in most of the states in the country, academic institutions and healthcare centres for Ayurveda system are working under direct control of central and state governments. But, in the case of Siddha no educational institution or hospital is working in any part of the country other than Tamil Nadu. For namesake, there are a few Siddha OPDs functioning in primary health centers (PHCs) in Kerala and in Delhi. There are separate wings for Ayurveda in several AIIMS hospitals working in various places in India, but no wing has been set up for siddha in any one of the All India Institutes.
In an interview here on last Saturday, Dr. Arul Amuthan, coordinator of WSI, said although a ministry for Ayush is in the centre, its support to Siddha system is very poor and the CCRS in Chennai, the apex body for the development of Siddha system, is not undertaking any specific project for the growth of the system since it was floated in September 2010 after bifurcating the erstwhile CCRAS. When Siddha wing was part of the CCRAS, there was proper direction for growth and the medicines had wider acceptability all over Tamil Nadu and outside. He said it is better for the system to shift to the headquarters of the CCRS from Chennai to New Delhi.
He further said the Siddha practitioners and medical graduates, who are spread across India, will shortly assemble on a platform to deliberate on the need of a working strategy on how to approach various state governments and the central government for their interventions in this matter. The Forum will also hold discussions with associations of stakeholders of all traditional systems in each state. The Forum is entirely a body of registered Siddha medical graduates working out of Tamil Nadu.
“Although this traditional system of treatment has equal status and acceptability with those of Ayurveda and other streams in the Ayush, it does not get the deserving support from the union Ayush ministry, which is giving importance only to Ayurveda. Even in Tami Nadu, wherein the system is believed to be originated, the whole sector of Indian medicine, mostly Siddha, is struggling hard despite the state has a good tradition of indigenous medicines,” he said.
Without creating conducive environment for sustained growth for traditional medical systems, the government cannot fulfill its mission for providing holistic healing for all diseases through Indian medicines, Dr. Amuthan added.