The Government has taken note of the importance of AYUSH in view of the need to improve the immunity of every individual and has taken various steps to propagate AYUSH among the public. The Ministry of AYUSH have conventionally organised National and State level Arogya fairs; exhibitions; seminars; melas to increase awareness about affordable and easy practices that can be adopted for prevention of diseases including enhancing immunity. Further, at the outset of COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry repurposed its scheme, namely, Information, Education and Communication (IEC) by utilizing the virtual medium of communication optimally. The action taken in this regard is detailed as under:-
- Ministry of AYUSH issued an advisory on 29.01.2020 on how to protect oneself from COVID-19 and how to stay healthy. Ministry has written a letter dated 06.03.2020 to all Chief Secretaries of States / Union territories with more specific suggestions on augmentation of General Immunity of people and about possible AYUSH intervention. Ministry has also issued self-care guidelines on 31.03.2020 for preventive health measures and boosting immunity with special reference to respiratory health.
- Guidelines for Registered Practitioners of respective system of AYUSH have been prepared by Research Councils and National Institutes with their team of experts and same is vetted by the Interdisciplinary AYUSH Research and Development Task Force of Ministry of AYUSH. These vetted guidelines are made available in public domain for the benefit of more than 700000 registered AYUSH practitioners to help in the management of COVID-19 pandemic uniformly.
- The Ministry of AYUSH has also released “National Clinical Management Protocol based on Ayurveda and Yoga for management of COVID-19” prepared by National Task force which in consensus from expert committees from All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), Delhi, Institute of Post Graduate Training and Research in Ayurved (IPGTRA), Jamnagar, and National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), Jaipur , Central Council for Research in Ayurveda (CCRAS), Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN) and other national research organizations as per the Report & Recommendations of the Interdisciplinary Committee.
- AYUSH for Immunity Campaign: Ministry of AYUSH launched a three-month long campaign called “AYUSH for Immunity” in the month of August, 2020 that aimed to increase awareness among the masses, regarding the effective home care solutions and recommended AYUSH practices, to help them to enhance their immunity. During the entire campaign, series of events, such as social media contests, online discourses and virtual seminars were carried out, which further increased the reach of Ministry of AYUSH among various sections of the society. It was a theme-based campaign, covering the Aahar, Vihaar, and Nidra themes, for the months of September, October, and November 2020 respectively. Various outreach activities were conducted by different institutions under the Ministry, for public awareness.
- Holding webinars on virtual platforms: Ministry of AYUSH through various platforms including its own Ayush Virtual Convention Centre (AVCC) held webinars on various topics. A total of 6 webinars took place from 14th Aug 2020 on the subject of immunity.
- Community Radio programme: Ministry of AYUSH also engaged Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), an Inter-Governmental organisation to disseminate immunity related information through Community Radio Stations(CRS) among rural and semi urban population. The broadcast of five minutes on CRS was done twice every day from 10/12/2020 to 10/02/2021.
- Contests on social media platforms including MYGOV.IN: With the aim to make the process of dissemination and receipt of information interesting and playful, the Ministry also experimented with contests and competitions. My Life My Yoga (MLMY) contest was a watershed event in which 46,000 people participated by uploading their yoga related videos during International Day of Yoga (IDY) 2020. People across the globe were provisioned to take part in this contest. Further, the social media channels of Ministry of AYUSH, its autonomous organisations and MYGOV.IN also hosted a number of contests viz, essay writing, quiz contest, short video contest, etc. on the topic of immunity.
- Updating Website on COVID-19 related remedies: The website of the Ministry of AYUSH and its autonomous organisations were also updated regularly with information on immunity related remedies.
- SanjivaniApp: Ministry of AYUSH and has documented the impact assessment of effectiveness, acceptance and usage of AYUSH advisories & measures in the prevention of COVID-19 through Mobile app base population study in around 1.5 crores respondents. 85.1% of the respondents reported use of AYUSH measures for prevention of COVID–19, among which89.8% respondents agreed to have benefitted from the practice of AYUSH advisory.
- Creation of Videos: With the help of National Film Development Corporation of India(NFDC), a 17-minute video on ‘COVID-19 perspective’ of All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA, New Delhi), was created. The video was suitably shortened and broadcasted nation-wide on the occasion of World Ayurveda Day.
The Additional Charge of Minister of State of the AYUSH Ministry, Sh. KirenRijiju stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha here today.
