The terms of reference were extremely wide, namely, “to make a broad survey of the present position in regard to conditions and health organisations in British India and to make recommendations for future development.” They could have had every help in making their investigations into the role of the indigenous and other systems in India if they wanted to. They went so far as to invite experts from foreign countries (U.S.A., Great Britain, Soviet Russia and Australia) to come to India and tell them how things are done at their places.
But they found no time to invite experts in Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Unani, Siddha and other systems to come and give them an insight into the extent to which these systems have a hold over the people of this country. That the Bhore Committee has built a plan on the ridiculous assumption that there are only 47500 physicians in India, is both unscientific and untrue. It is estimated that in the Madras Presidency alone there are over 40,000 physicians practising the indigenous systems.
Calculated on the average we might easily find that in India we may have over 2 to two and a half lakhs, practicing systems of medicines other than allopathy, and these the Bhore Committee has conveniently ignored. It may be true that these practitioners are inefficient, unscientific; and that the systems they practice are not modern. But the fact remains that as long as the allopaths themselves cannot offer something superior and cheaper than water we have now, and at a cost the the country can afford, there is no hope of allopathy ever totally displacing these systems, no matter however much the legislation may be forged in favour of allopathy.
Even SIGERIST in his History of Medicine in India has admitted that it will take a long time for the better trained men to replace the untrained indigenous physician. But till then “it would be worthwhile to study whether these practitioners could not be used during the period of transition as auxilliary personelle.” There is at least some commonsense in this view.
The health problem of India is the problem of the health of the village and the villager. Any system that can tackle that cheaply, efficiently and with minimum trained personelle is the one that we shall choose. If homoeopathy can do it I shall recommend it. If Ayurveda can do it, I shall prefer that, so also Unani. The sole criterion is and must be that we should get, under existing circumstances, for a given sum, the maximum results with the minimum of expenditure and organisation.
WHAT INDIA NEEDS TODAY.
In considering all these problems I would beg you not to consider yourselves as homoeopaths, allopaths, ayurvedis and Hakims, but solely and in the first instance as physicians all facing the almost hopeless and stupendous problems of Indias health.
In what way can each system be employed, in what way can each system help, in what way can all the systems be coordinated and harnessed immediately and now, under existing circumstances, with the facilities available, that is the question; that is certainly the factual basis for a plan and not the dreamy picture of the Bhore Recommendations, And no plan, at any rate no health plan, has any hope of success in India if it does not base itself on four fundamental principles so admirably formulated by DR. J. B. GRANT in his Health of India, namely, we shall have to make any step taken in India yield, for a given sum spent here, seven times that results which is expected of that sum elsewhere in richer countries. That is, we must make one Rupee spent here, yield in return what rich countries would expect for the expenditure of seven rupees. Can this be done? The answer is YES!, IF, and it is a very big If.:-.
1. If we can know what can be done in that way.
2. If we know the best method to do it that way.
3. If we can find or produce people who know how to do it that way.
4. And, finally, if we could know what sort of design and structure of service the people want, would appreciate and derive benefit from to the maximum extent.
In short the entire design and structure of whatever steps we may take shall have to be scrutinized and tested solely by a ruthless analysis of the economic situation in our country and the possibilities of its future development. But still more important is the fact that all measures must be judged by their failure or success as applied to mass, and this also applies to Homoeopathy; and all future plans of national welfare and reconstruction must be planned with one side view, the paying capacity of the villager and its suitability to his needs.
GRANT has put it very admirably as follows: “Adequate plans for public health services can be undertaken only with a knowledge of the realities of the economic situation. The results of any social service administration depends upon the money available and the way it is spent. Much ineffective administration results from violating these principles. The solution lies in the development of a plan whereby the facilities purchased elsewhere in other countries at a cost of seven shillings per capita can be obtained with local economic resources.
It can be done, and has been done elsewhere in other countries of relatively low economic standards. Limited sums do not make adequate and good service impossible, provided the people want the services and are prepared to contribute work in lieu of money and provided there are people with the knowledge to plan such a service.”.
THE PRESENT SITUATION.
At present there is only one thing open to us. Let us remember that we have only an Interim Government. Everything in India is in a period of rapid transition. There is no crime in having also an interim Health Plan devised to meet the exigencies of the situation. The Bhore plan and all such beautiful plans I should postpone till such time as adequate finances are available. In the meanwhile the peoples health or ill health cannot be adjourned at will as cases in the law courts. They must be given the simplest and readiest form of medical service suited to their needs, and this I have explained in great detail in my memorandum to the National Planning Committee.
It has been my fathers contention that it is better for our people to die of semi- medical aid than of no medical aid at all. What we envisage is a simple rural medical service scheme and in it there is room for all systems of medicine that have anything tangible to offer. I told you about the guerilla battalions that played havoc with the enemy when the trained regular armies had failed. I consider any man, no matter who, be he a Vaid, Hakim, Homoeopath or of any other system, if he can be useful in our present time of emergency, should be taken up and utilised to his utmost capacity We have not got superfluous men today who cannot be used.
I know it because I spend 8 months touring in the villages each year and I am authorised to speak about the difficulties and the needs of rural medical aid better than all surgeon generals and medical officials who sit most of the time at their desks, And from experience I can tell you that the average allopath, as compared to the Homoeopath and the Ayurvedic, is a failure under the simpler environments and conditions of the village. He is lost out there, and is reduced to the level of a mere symptomatologist. In this capacity he is far more at a disadvantage than the homoeopath or the vaid.
I saw it in Bihar and many other provinces. We should know how to exploit and guage the capacity of each man and put him in the proper place. The intelligencies of a Government lies in being able to use each man to his fullest capacity, in giving each man the type of work he can carry out. Can this be done? Yes, provided we have a simple elastic plan built on the realities of today and provided we have the men who know how to select the men we have at our disposal. It may be asked, will not the state of health deteriorate. My answer is NO! Things cannot become any worse than they are today.
On the contrary there is every prospect of an improvement because you give a purposefulness to men who are stagnating, because they are not saddled with responsibility and have been denied human dignity. I told you that our plans must be interim. When the time and circumstances come for better plans, by all means scrap the out-dated ones. That is but logical and fair. So also the so- called “unscientific” Homoeopaths, Ayurvedis and Unanis will die out when you can prove to the people the superiority of scientific medicine, in general therapy of which I as a competent allopath am less and less convinced the more I study Homoeopathy and Ayurveda.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH HOMOEOPATHY AND AYURVEDA IN INDIA?.
It is but right that you should expect me to tell you something about the shortcomings of our profession here in Homoeopathy and Ayurveda and Yunani. The defect is due to the fact that there is no Government aid or control. Should the Government demand a high standard and facilitate it with adequate financial help we shall get a better and higher quality of practitioners than we have at present. Today, to pursue the study of and system of medicine other than allopathy is more a liability than an asset, difficult to capitalise. The allopath in India started as a compounder. It is Govt. encouragement that made them what they are now.
