The Government of India is making consistent efforts toward the betterment of the medical healthcare system in India, and the Ministry of AYUSH has played an important role in it. The Ministry of AYUSH is a Government of India ministry responsible for educational development and promoting the use of traditional medicines. The Ministry of AYUSH is making use of Information Technology (IT) to improvise the Indian health care system and improve its reach among people. Taking a step further in this direction, the Ministry of AYUSH has launched AYUSH Grid Project, under the existing Digital India mission launched by the GOI.
Part of the Ministry of AYUSH
What is AYUSH Grid Project?
The AYUSH Grid Project is a healthcare project launched by the Ministry of AYUSH, under the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), backed by the Digital India mission. The main aim of this project is to make the best use of Information Technology (IT), understand public healthcare needs, and make the basic healthcare facilities within the reach of every single household. After several rounds of discussion conducted by the Ministry of AYUSH, chaired by Vd. Rajesh Kotecha (Secretary, of Ministry of AYUSH), the AYUSH Grid project was successfully launched in 2018. With the integration of the IT sector of India and the AYUSH Grid Project, results are quite beneficial for the public, as it provides them with varied digital options for their healthcare needs. The Digitalization of AYUSH will not only lead to transformation in the healthcare sector but will also improve the education, research, and drug regulation sector as well.
Under the AYUSH Grid Project, all the officials of AYUSH were provided with a short, customized IT course, in collaboration with C-DAC, Pune. Under this training initiative, nearly 200 AYUSH professionals were trained, on how to handle AYUSH digital platform.
Benefits of the AYUSH Grid Project?
- The local public of the nation gets easy access to their health care needs via their smartphone.
- Mobile application such as the Ayush Sanjivani mobile app and the Yoga locator mobile app has helped a lot to reach out to a large number of people in a short time.
- During the Pandemic of COVID-19, the GOI added a COVID-19 support dashboard on all AYUSH mobile applications and websites to provide quick medical help to the people.
- The AYUSH Grid Project turned out to be a game-changing step, as it limits the malpractices in the healthcare system. Now people can simply reach out to their nearest healthcare booth, via mobile phone. People can also register their complaints and feedback so that officials of AYUSH can look after them.
- This project also aims to create awareness among the people about the usage of household edible items with medicinal properties.
Major shortcomings in the AYUSH Grid Project:
- A large number of the Indian population doesn’t have access to mobile phones, thus they can’t avail the benefit of this project.
- Still, in many remote locations, in India, there is no internet connectivity, thus people living in those areas can’t use these applications.
- As the AYUSH Grid Project, is in its early phase, it has been reported that sometimes, its application doesn’t work.