Health The art of healing holds a vitally important place in Indian scientific knowledge. Since the second millennium BC, indigenous systems of medicine, including surgery, have been widely practised. Today, the Yogic, the Ayurvedic and the Unani coexist with modern medical technology. Some of the most sophisticated medical equipment in the world can be found in India. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi was established in 1956. It has a panel of physicians and surgeons who enjoy international prestige and has a worldwide reputation for its efforts in pioneering medical research. Many private medical establishments also exist. The establishments at Vellore and the Jaslok Hospital in Bombay are but two such institutions that have set very high international standards. The Indian Council of Medical Research, established in 1956 is the apex body in the country to promote, coordinate and formulate bio-medical and health research. And in 1978, India announced the birth of a baby girl, Durga, as a result of the world's first frozen embryo transfer in Calcutta.
Medicine is not new in India. Detailed medical observations and suggestions for therapy are recorded in the Vedas. There are three main indigenous systems in India. The Ayurvedic system takes into account the complex relations between the body, the mind and the soul. The two Ayurvedic Samithas are the Caraka and the Susuta which deal with pathology, anatomy and toxicology and contain therapeutic and surgical treatises. The Buddhist Sutras, written from the sixth century BC onwards, contain a complimentary system of teachings on medicine. The Rasachikitsa school, for example, explains the healing properties of metal alloys and compounds, salt, sulphur and its compounds. These are also mentioned in the Tantric texts. The Tibetans follow this system to this day and have well attended centres at Dharamsala, Dalhousie and New Delhi.
Yoga is a system of physical and mental exercises which dates back to the second century BC and comprises a rigorous system of mental and physical discipline. This is also a philosophic system which aims at making the body function perfectly.
Unani Tibb, based on the Greek system of medicine, came to India from the Arab peninsula. It also co-opts certain teachings from the Ayurvedic system. One of its greatest exponents was Abu Al Hussain bin Abdullah, known in the west as Avicenna who lived in the second century AD and wrote the Qunnum, which is accepted as the greatest authority on Unani Tibb even today. Under the Mughals, several Tibb Madarsas(schools) were established at Lucknow, Madras and Patna. Masihul Mulk Hakim Muhammad Ajmal Khan, a friend and follower of Mahatma Gandhi, founded the famous Unani Tibb and Ayurvedic college in Delhi. He fought successfully against British prejudice to have indigenous medicine recognised. There are at present some 278,000 practioners of these systems in India today. There are also some 95 Ayurvedic and 16 Unani training centres functioning in the country.
India can boast of many significant achievements in the health field. The health services programme is not only directed at combating disease but to providing infrastructural services such as improving the water supply and sanitation, immunisation, health education and combating malnutrition and promoting the norm of small family. In 1977 the Indian Government launched the Reorientation of Medical Education Scheme through which various medical colleges were involved in the direct delivery of health care services to the rural and semi-urban population.
Since 1947, the country has achieved an improved life expectancy rate and a reduction in the infant mortality rate which fell from 27 to 12 per 1,000 births. Other significant milestones include the total eradication of small pox in 1975,domiciliary treatment of TB and advances in the the treatment of nutritional disorders. Life expectancy has recorded a significant increase - from 32 years in 1947 to over 56 years today.
The basic unit of health care in the country is the Primary Health Centre and there are 7,250 such centres and 83,000 sub centres in operation today, a remarkable achievement since none existed in 1950. Similarly, there has been a four-fold increase in hospital beds, from 113,000 in 1951 to 470,000 at the beginning of the decade. The doctor-population ratio which was 1:5,150 twenty years ago now stands at 1:3,600.
India has 106 medical colleges, 19 dental colleges and 11 other institutes imparting medical education. The admission capacity in medical colleges which was 2,500 in 1951 rose to 12,500 in just 20 years. At the turn of the decade an estimated 178,000 doctors, 113,000 nurses, 115,000 midwives and 371,000 health guides were providing health care to the Indian people.
A striking feature of the goals of health education has been to promote the norm of small families. The aim of motivating some 126 million eligible couples in the reproductive age group to voluntarily limit their families is a formidable one, but an estimated 31.9 million of this number were protected by approved methods of family planning till March, 1985. The message 'A small family is a happy family' is projected through TV, puppet theatre and film shows. Through such programmes some 68.1 million births have been averted and the country has registered a decline in the birth rate - from 42 per 1,000 in 1961 to 33 per 1,000 at the turn of the decade.