Requirement to revitalise Traditional Health System
Year 1988 village Charmar, district Udaipur, the incidence at this village changed the very direction of our organisation, the incidence was the spread of diphtheria that caused the death of 15 children’s. The question that came up to our mind was that if the modern system of medicine could not save the lives of this innocent children’s what system was there that used to save the lives of these people when modern health services were not available, who were the people who used to provide health services, in order to find the answers to these questions a long journey started which took me across forests and the far flung areas, brought me in touch with sages, hermits and people who have been providing health services from generations, with knowledge silently passing on to the next generation. The one to one interaction with this vast treasure house of indigenous knowledge further encouraged me to find such carriers of traditional health system and we realized that.

India had been a pioneer in the field of traditional system of medicine the culture and the way of life that has evolved over the years is the outcome of the findings done by the sage and hermits. In almost every century there has been such people who had mastered one trait or the other ranging from astronomy to botany over the years the findings enriched this and further gave a scientific backing to the traditions and the way of life. This knowledge has been systematically documented and is now available in the form of Vedas and Purans, there are four Vedas dealing with almost every aspect of human life. This documentation has a pure scientific background.

Right from the birth of the planet Earth and the plant kingdom nature has been revealing its healing secrets, and the people most close to mother nature received these gifts of nature abundantly, these people have been healing the aching soles with the healing gifts of nature, known in different parts of the world by different names, in Rajasthan these people are referred to as GUNIS literally meaning the inheritor of gifts. These traditional health practitioners (THPs) have been passing on this knowledge from one generation to another following the master-disciple tradition of knowledge transfer.
The real India still resides in the villages where traditional health practitioner are providing health care services to almost 80% of the population

Through out the world one can find traditional system be it Agriculture, health, economy, natural resource management, if these systems are reestablished in the society this will not only help in improving the economy but also help in strengthening our local resources. This system is beneficial for the entire human community.

It has also to be understood that all the forest dwellers be it humans or animals use the various herbs available in the forests to cure their ailments. These forests from time immemorial have acted as the colleges, universities and research centers for traditional health practitioners and acted as virtual hospitals. There is an urgent need to protect and conserve our bio-diversity for a healthy society.
The affects of traditional system of medicine have dual benefits as it provides cost affective, affordable and effective health service in comparison to the modern medicine system which is not easily available, have harmful side effects and above all is costly also.

Success of traditional health system & research
Jagran Jan Vikas Samiti has been instrumental in identifying these traditional health practitioners and brought them under a national forum named as National forum of traditional health practitioners, this forum has been highlighting the concerns of THPs. The THPs have successfully treated a large number of ailments in North India through this forum such as Asthma, Arthritis, Leucorrhoea, Manorrhagia, Stomach
Disorders, Eczema, Skin Diseases etc.

Apart from this the THPs identified, have been successful treating a large number of chronic ailments the treatment of which in modern medicine is very high such as diabetes, ailments related to blood pressure, pneumonia, Kidney stone, Jaundice, Pyorrhea etc.

Control over seasonal ailments and epidemics
Black fever (Leishmaniasis), malaria, cholera etc are some of the epidemics which routinely occur during the rains especially in low lying areas like Bihar, large scale and highly expensive epidemic control mechanisms are brought into force by the government to counter these ailments however the geography of the region hampers these efforts, it is hear that the traditional health system can be explored upon as a feasible alternative.

I honestly believe that traditional health system has the capability to emerge as an effective epidemic control mechanism, if the system is implemented with full faith it has the capability not only to control but also to prevent epidemics, at this point I would like to narrate an incidence..

Thousands of people are affected by Malaria in low lying areas of south-west Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand & Punjab, the traditional health practitioners of Jagran Jan Vikas Samiti have successfully countered this by giving decoction of the herb locally known as NAMI. This is a preventive as well as curative treatment for malaria, thus THPs are routinely providing their services to the community, these healers also associate themselves with government health services wherever required.

ANEMIA & MALNOURISHMENT
Malnourishment is considered to be the causal factor for a large number of ailments, the main causes of which are
1. Poverty
2. Changing dietary practices
3. Natural calamities- Floods, droughts etc
4. Prolonged use of modern medicines
Taking this as a backdrop it is observed that 70% of females in India are anemic and a large number of children’s are malnourished.

Traditional medicine as a social enterprise
Traditional dietary practices has a vast store house of products that have the ability to counter malnourishment for example Batisa a nutritional supplement for women is an product made up of 32 ingredients, for men there are products like Mogar and Counchpak for children’s and the elderly a nutritional supplement and energizer Chawanparsh is also highly beneficial. All these products improves immunity power of the body, and most importantly all these products are cost affective and easily available.

The organization annually conducts health camps and distributes these nutritional foods to the community in order to insure that the community remains healthy especially during the pressing times, and can continue with their livelihood practices.

The entire economy of a Guni revolves around his practice in which sometimes the entire family gets involved in one way or the another the work ranges from collection of herbs, grinding, processing and packaging. The Guni only charges the actual cost of the medicine without any profit motive, the result is that the community gets effective and affordable treatment which most importantly is readily available, a large sum of money that could have diverted to expensive modern medication is saved, there by strengthening the household economy.

Looking at the bigger picture the system has all the requests for preventive and curative health care and if the system is incorporated in the government health system can help in saving a large sum of money that can be fruitfully utilized for other development works.

Apart from this the system encourages conservation and propagation of medicinal plants in particular and bio-diversity in general, a large number of village youths can be directly associated with the conservation, propagation and preparation of ethno-medicinal botanical formulations.

This system has a high element of convergence as it can be affectively linked with the various agriculture, environment and health related development programs initiated by the government towards rural development.

Traditional Health Practitioners Pharmacy
The organization has established a small traditional health practitioners pharmacy, the unit prepares traditional medicines and nutritional supplement for rural marketing, this unit has emerged not only as a processing unit rather it has become a meeting point for the traditional health practitioners, where they come & discuss their formulations and upgrade their knowledge about the vast plant kingdom and its healing secrets.
The earnings from the pharmacy are further utilized to strengthen the organizations mission of revitalization of traditional system of medicine, under which some of the main programs are :
1. Conservation and propagation of fast eroding herbs through herbal gardens, these herbal gardens are being developed on different scales ranging from home herbal gardens of THPs, which has reduced their dependency on forests and also saves time involved in collection, herbal gardens have also been developed as demonstration sites both in rural and urban areas, apart from this a herbal garden cum demonstration site has been developed at the organizations pharmacy premises, the garden not only provides fresh crude herbs to the pharmacy but is also being developed as a conservation site for a large number of highly endangered herbs, a seed bank is also being maintained at the same premise.
2. Seed banks of indigenous varieties are being developed at the community level in order to preserve the fast eroding genetic varieties.
3. The surplus seeds are marketed which in turn is supplementing the income of Gunis & farmers
4. Looking at the tremendous potential of medicinal plant cultivation, farmers and gunis are being provided technical assistance for large-scale cultivation of medicinal plants.

Efforts towards sustainability
1. The treatment provided by the traditional health practitioner is being recorded with the nearest available democratic institution, this will not only help in the preserving indigenous traditional knowledge but also help in the protecting the community intellectual property rights and the rights of the healers over his treatment.
2. In order to further validate the authenticity of the formulations these formulations are used during various health camps, the successful formulations are later registered with the Rajasthan Government.
3. In far-flung areas where government health services are negligible these healers and their traditional health care centers are providing relief to the community, in some areas these centers are also providing emergency services to the community.
4. One of the major hindrance felt in the initial years was the reluctance of these healers to share their knowledge which resulted in the loss of a great information in case of death of the healer, the organization designed such training programs wherein these healers freely share and enhance their knowledge and expertise for the benefit of all.
5. In order to insure the continuity, a forum of traditional health practitioners has been established on a national scale, with the view to provide cost affective health services to the entire nation which will further help in revitalization of traditional system of medicine. The forum meets regularly on an annual basis to take a stock of the activities undertaken and carves out an annual action plan for the forum. Apart from this in order to propagate the message the forum gets in touch with a large number of government and non-government organizations.
6. The home remedies that are practiced in almost every home is an offshoot of traditional system of medicine, the home remedies have passed on from generations to generation and is a virtual store house of health practices.

With the hope that the world recognizes and gives due credit to the traditional health system and the institution of Gunis, only then we can achieve the goal of universal health for all.