In a move aimed to promote India’s rich Ayurvedic legacy, Union Ayush Minister Shripad Yesso Naik on Tuesday said that from this year, every Dhanteras will be observed as National Ayurveda Day. The first National Ayurveda Day would be observed on October 28, he said.
“The Government has decided to observe Dhanvantari Jayanti, popularly known as Dhanteras, as National Ayurveda Day every year,” said the Minister after the launch of ‘Elixir of life’, an ayurvedic propriety medicine developed by SM Raju, an IAS from Bihar cadre. Dhanteras falls two days before Diwali.
The theme for this year is ‘Ayurveda for Prevention and Control of Diabetes’. Naik has already shot off letters to all the State Health Ministers to celebrate the Day every year on Dhanteras in a big way by organising public lectures, seminars and exhibitions on the day as per the theme. This step is part of the Modi Government’s decision to bring Indian alternative medicine system on the global platform. It comes two years after the UN declared June 21 as International Yoga Day.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister Giriraj Singh rued that health has become a means of making money for big pharmas. “Had Ayurveda been the focus after Independence, all kinds of medicines could have been extracted from medicinal plants and the healthcare sector would not have turned into a business,” he added.
“After Independence, education was our USP across the world. But Macaulay’s education destroyed it and we are suffering the consequences today. Our culture was destroyed through language, and secondly health. We are not short of a single medicinal plant but look what copying has done to us,” he said while stressing on the need to promote one of the oldest medicine systems in the world.
Talking about the ayurvedic product, Raju said that the drugs are anti-ageing syrup and for ortho, cardiovascular, liver, kidney and gastro related problems.
The medicine is a combination of neem, bel, jamun, brahmi, amla, ashwagandha, hareetakhi, chirayata and karanja among a few others.
“The anti-ageing medicine stimulates and rectifies a number of metabolic activities in human body,” said the Principal Secretary in the Bihar Government.
Bangalore-based Mallur Flora and Hospitality ltd, which is commercially producing the supplement, has been financed by the Union Social Justice Ministry, under its Venture Capital Fund Scheme for Scheduled Caste (SC) Entrepreneurs, and the Department of Welfare, Karnataka Government.