52% Of Urban Indians Utilise Ayush

Ayush refers to the six Indian systems of medicines: Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homeopathy.

Around 46 per cent of rural and 53 per cent of urban individuals in India availed of Ayush for the prevention or treatment of ailments in the past year, according to findings of a survey released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

Ayush refers to the six Indian systems of medicines, namely Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homeopathy, majorly prevalent in the country.

Among systems of Ayush, Ayurveda is the most commonly used system for treatment, with 40.5 per cent and 45.5 per cent of all respondents in rural and urban India respectively indicating as such.

The survey puts beliefs such as increased effectiveness of Ayush systems of medicine, negligible side effects, the availability of individualised personal care, and satisfying previous experiences as major reasons reported by the households for using Ayush treatment in the past year.

The survey states that about 95 per cent of the rural population aged 15 years and above in India are aware of Ayush, whereas the number stands at 96 per cent for urban India.

MoSPI s report states that 79 per cent and 80 per cent of the households in rural and urban India have at least one member aware of medicinal plants and home medicines.

Around 24 per cent of the households have at least one member aware about folk medicine or local health tradition in both rural and urban India, the report added.

The findings are a part of the first exclusive all-India survey on Ayush conducted by the National Sample Survey Office from July 2022 to June 2023, as part of the 79th round of the National Sample Survey.

This survey covers the entire country, with information collected from 181,298 households, including 104,195 in rural areas and 77,103 in urban areas.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com