The central government has launched a National campaign to promote Homoeopathy for Mother and Child care. : The two-day Workshop was organized by Department of AYUSH and Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH) at India Islamic Cultural Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi on 4th-5th, November, 2007. This workshop is aimed to sensitize policy makers, medical practitioners and non-government organisation towards increased use of Homoeopathy in the care of Mother and Child.
Inauguration
Health Minister addresses...
Panabaka Lakshmi speaks...Inaugurating the workshop, the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Panabaka Lakshmi said “We attach high priority to focused development of Homoeopathy and other Indian systems of medicine and in the 11th Five Year Plan the outlay for the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) has been increased,” She also highlighted the growing acceptance and popularity of Homoeopathy all over the world and called for its focused development.
Valedictory
Addressing the valedictory session the Honourable Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss said “If 'dais' [untrained midwives] can conduct deliveries, why then shouldn't Homoeopaths be allowed to do the same,” Dr. Ramadoss said in response to a demand from participating Doctors that they be allowed to conduct deliveries as they were trained in gynaecology. “I am willing to adopt any system which can save the mothers and children of the country.”
Describing Homoeopathy as a time-tested stream of Medicine, the Minister said it would gain currency if it were also “science tested.” In this, he was echoing the Director-General of the Indian Council of Medical Research, N.K. Ganguly, who made out a strong case for evolving a proper mechanism for clinical trials of homoeopathic medicines.
Officials
Smt. Anita Das The Secretary, Department of AYUSH, in her address emphasised on the focus and objective of the workshop. She said while Homoeopathy has strong roots in parts of the country like Kerala, West Bengal, and the North Eastern States, its potential and strength need to be popularised in the rest of the country. Hence he felt the need to have a Nation wide campaign showcasing the strength of Homoeopathy, especially in the treatment of women in the reproductive stage and children.
She further added that the workshop is not conceived of, as an academic one with learned presentations, but as a platform for constructive discussions on how to improve healthcare delivery through Homoeopathy to this most vulnerable segment of our population. What measures need to be taken at the policy level and at the programme level to operationalise good health care to the focused group of patients in the backward and remote parts of the country.
Homoeopathy is used by many people in India but the usage is very patchy. Through a concerted campaign, we are going to promote homeopathy across the country, especially for mother and child health promotion," Under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the Government has decided to promote this form of Medicine at the National, state and district level. "All the hospitals and Homeopathy practitioners will be brought under a network to facilitate the success of the programme," said Varghese Samuel Joint secretary , AYUSH .
Giving details about the initiative, Chaturbhuja Nayak, director of the Central Council for Research in Homeopathy (CCRH), said the effort would address the "unsatisfactory health status of women and children in the country and also the high morbidity and mortality of infants and young children".Currently, the infant mortality rate is 58 for every 1,000 childbirths, while maternal mortality is 301 for every 100,000 deliveries.
He said problems like anaemia, deficient secretion of milk, urinary tract infections, skin disorders, asthma, diarrhoea, chikungunya, respiratory problems, sleep disorder and many such health problems could be addressed effectively through Homeopathy with less expenditure.
"We have over 3,000 hospitals catering to the traditional system of medicine. These hospitals along with smaller hospitals affiliated to the primary healthcare centres and district hospitals will be roped in to provide an option to people in general and rural folks in particular. Our focus is on preventive cure rather than hospitalisation of patients " Nayak added.
Dr. Diwan Harishchand, Chairman of Scientific Advisory Committee of Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy was Guest of Honour to the inaugural session. Three books 'Manual on National Workshop on Homoeopathy for Healthy Mother and Happy Child', 'Strategic Development of Homoeopathy for Mother and Child Care' and 'Homoeopathy for Mother and Child Care- An Overview' were released on this occasion.
Participating the valedictory Prof N. K. Ganguly, Director General, ICMR said that Homoeopathy is effective in rheumatoid arthritis, allergies, anaemia in women and HIV .He also stated that urgent measures taken up in clinical research regarding homoeopathic medicines and said that ICMR would be willing to collaborate in such research project
Mr. Rajkumar IAS , Special Commissioner , IM&H ,Govement of Tamil Nadu and many officials representing their state around 300 delegates including Policy makers, Allopathic and Homoeopathic experts from different parts of the country and abroad attended the workshop on Homoeopathy.
Scientific session-First day
The scientific session on the first day started after the inaugural session. The first plenary session was Chaired by Dr. Diwan Harish Chand and Dr. Sohan Singh, Chairman, PG Education Committee, Central Council of Homoeopathy, Co- chaired the session. Dr. Vishpala Parthasarthy, Editor of National Journal of Homoeopathy gave an introduction to the basic tenets of Homoeopathy. Dr. Kumar Dhawale elaborated the Potentiality of Homoeopathy in Maternal and Child Health. Dr. Eswara Das,Deputy advisor Homoeopathy illustrated the status of Homoeopathy in India . Dr. Joyce Frye, US Pharmacopoeia Revision Committee, United states of America shared her experiences on Homoeopathy in obstetric care. Dr. R. Vijay Kumar, IAS, Former Commissioner of ISM &H, Govt. of Tamil Nadu shared his experiences on Mainstreaming ISM&H in NRHM
In the afternoon, the presentations were hosted in three breakaway sessions for the Policy Makers, for Allopathic Physicians, and for Homoeopathic Physicians.
Policy makers
Sh. Verghese Samuel, IAS, Joint Secretary, Dept. of AYUSH chaired this session and Dr. V.T. Augustine, former Adviser (Homoeopathy), Govt. of India co-chaired the Session. Dr. V. K. Gupta, former Principal, Nehru Homoeopathic Medical College, New Delhi, highlighted that Homoeopathy is the second leading system providing primary health care in India. Dr. Ramesh Anand, Additional Director, CGHS, Delhi elaborated on the structure of CGHS set up and specially discussed about interdisciplinary referral and cross-referral. Dr. R.K. Manchanda, Deputy Director, ISM & H, Govt. of NCT of Delhi, presented a study on comparison between allopathic, Indian medicine and homoeopathic streaming in health care.
Allopathic physicians
In the breakaway session of Allopathic Physician, the first session was chaired by Dr. K.M. Nandgopal, Head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology ., Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Bangalore Medical College, Bangalore and co-chaired by Dr. Somen Adhikary, Director, National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata. Dr. Syed Shams Babar, practicing Homoeopath of Hyderabad highlighted the utmost significance of integrating the knowledge of Obstetrics and Homoeopathy to ensure safe motherhood and stressed upon the need to document evidence based knowledge. He underlined the basic ideological differences between Allopathic and Homoeopathic system of medicine.
Dr. Kusum Chand, Medicine specialist, Delhi elaborated upon the role of Homoeopathy in puerperium and highlighted that this stage assumes importance on account of decreased immunity and increased susceptibility to diseases. She emphasized that Homoeopathy is the only solution for cracked nipple and scanty milk secretion.
The second session was chaired by Dr. Sarita Aggarwal, Director and Professor, Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi and Co-chaired by Dr. N. Mohanty, Former Principal, Dr. A.C. Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Bhubaneswar.
Dr. Rathin Chakraborty, Kolkata high lighted the “Caring of neonates and infants- The Homoeopathic Way. Dr. Harsh Nigam, Kanpur emphasized upon the scope and limitations of Homoeopathic system of medicines in childhood care.
Homoeopathic Physicians
The breakaway session for Homoeopathic Physicians, the first session was chaired by Dr. S.P. Singh, Adviser (Hom.) Dept. of AYUSH and Co-chaired by Dr. B.N. Singh, Director (Homoeopathy), Uttar Pradesh. Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, Deputy Director, Donor Coordination Cell, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, highlighted the commitment of Govt. of India towards National Rural Health Mission.
Dr. Latha Devarajan,, Bangalore, highlighted the use of Homoeopathy in managing obstetric problems.Dr. S. K. Bhattacharya, Former Head of Obst. & Gynae., Dept of NRS, Medical College, Kolkata deliberated upon the various obstetric problems amenable to Homoeopathic treatment particularly through constitutional approach.
The second session was chaired by Dr. Arvind Kothe, Principal, Shri Kamaxi Devi Homoeopathic Medical College, Goa, co-chaired by Dr. M.R. Srivatsan, Member, Executive Committee, CCH.
Dr. Chandrashekhar Goda, Homoeopathic Consultant, Dept. of Pediatrics, Dr. M.L. Dhawale Memorial Homoeopathic Institute, Mumbai shared his experiences of Paediatric practice in tribal areas. Dr. J.D. Daryani, Principal, Dr. M.P.K. Homoeopathic Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Jaipur, highlighted paediatric cases from his clinical practice and discussed the strategies of successful handling of acute conditions in children.
Dr. Ram Subramaniam, Paediatrician, Mumbai, had his basic training in Allopathy and therefore could share the general management required in Paediatric practice irrespective of medicinal therapy taken.
The first day session concluded with open forum discussion chaired with smt Anita Das, Secretary, AYUSH, Ministry of Health and co chaired by Mr Verghese Samuel, the Joint Secretary. The forums discussed and streamlined the output
Scientific session-Second day
Dr. S.P.S. Bakshi, President, CCH chaired the first plenary session and Dr. R.D. Patel, Asst. Director (Hom.), Govt. of Gujarat co chaired the session. Dr. Hari Singh, Research Officer, CCRH, Delhi presented the Global scenario of research in Homoeopathy for Mother and Child Care. He stressed upon that more and more evidence based research is needed in the area of Mother and Child problems.
Dr. Elio Rossi, Teacher of Homoeopathic Courses, University of Bologna and Ravenna, Italy highlighted the development of Homoeopathy in Tusscan (Italy). He shared his experiences of efficacy of Homoeopathy in children and younger age group.
Dr. L.K. Nanda, Principal, Dr. A.C. Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Bhubhneswar, presented ADHD with Nephrotic syndrome.
Second plenary session was chaired by Dr. P.N. Verma, Former Director, CCRH and co-chaired by Dr. Nara Singh, Former Member, CCH. Dr. Parinaz Humranwala, Homoeopathic Consultant, Mumbai, presented on the Efficacy of Homoeopathy in a pre-term child with failure to thrive. Dr. Praful Barvalia from Mumbai presented a video case of ADHD Dr. Sunirmal Sarkar from National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata, highlighted the use of Homoeopathic medicines in Obstetric practice.
Third plenary session was chaired by Dr. D.P. Rastogi, Former Director, CCRH, Delhi, and co-chaired by Dr. R. Shaw, Former Director incharge, CCRH. Dr.P.V.Venkatraman presented video cases on Management of obstetric problems with Homoeopathy. Dr. Abdurahiman, Principal, Govt. Homoeopathic Medical College, Kozhikode, Kerala presented a case study on the management of Nephrotic syndrome in children. This was followed by a video presentation by Dr. S.M. Singh on retrospective case study of aborted Erythroblastosis foetalis.
Fourth plenary session for drafting of resolutions by all working groups was chaired by Smt. Anita Das, Secretary , Dept. of AYUSH. Resolutions adopted were presented by Sh. Verghese Samuel, Joint Secretary (AYUSH) in the valedictory session. Valedictory session ended with the vote of thanks by Prof. C. Nayak, Director, CCRH.- Editor
