WHO Working Group Meeting on developing Standardised Terminologies in Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The three- day meeting organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) with the support of Ministry of AYUSH at Jamnagar, Gujarat,  to review the draft documents on Terminologies of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, has laid a firm foundation for the globalisation efforts of these three AYUSH systems. The meeting was held  from December 2 to 4, 2019, at the Institute of Post Graduate Teaching & Research in Ayurveda (IPGT&RA), Jamnagar. IPGT&RA is India’s oldest PG College for Ayurveda, and is also a designated WHO Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine.

The Standard International Terminologies Documents reviewed here were developed by WHO as part of its global strategy to strengthen the quality, safety and effectiveness of Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM).  Development of these documents is included in the Project Collaboration Agreement (PCA) on Cooperation in the field of Traditional and Complementary Medicine under WHO strategy on T&CM covering the period 2014-2023 signed between World Health Organization (WHO) and Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India. Traditional Medicines are an important integral part of Universal Health Coverage Programme especially under Sustainable Developmental Goal-3 (SDG-3) of United Nations, according to a PIB release.

At the WHO Working Group Meetings (WGMs), each of the three zero draft documents prepared by experts were reviewed and an international consensus regarding the structure and content of each of the documents was arrived at. The documents are expected to provide the list of terms in the respective systems, definitions (short or explanatory descriptions as required) including contextual meanings of the terms, classical usages and references, suggested English terms, synonyms and exclusions, if any.

Twenty International experts of Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha from 13 different countries (Covering all six regions of WHO) like Japan, Canada, Denmark, Austria, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, UAE, Bangladesh, Switzerland, Malaysia, South Africa, Nepal, and Iran along with 21 National experts and four WHO officials participated at the meeting.