KOLKATA: If the Modi government is promoting all things Indian, and dedicating a ministry exclusively to AYUSH, president Pranab Mukherjee wasn’t lacking in enthusiasm when he batted for homeopathy here on Friday, saying it was playing a key role in healthcare.
Speaking at a ceremony at the Science City auditorium where leading homeopaths and students of the discipline were awarded, the president said, “As an alternate system of medicine, systems like Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy and Siddha are playing a key role in the health care service of our country. Homeopathy has great advantage of cost compared to allopathy, which is very costly. Apart from low-cost of treatment, it doesn’t have any side-effect, unlike allopathy where treating one ailment prepares ground for other ailments.”
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But he pointed out that considering the demand of this form of medicine, there was a huge shortage in qualified practitioners.
The president reminded the audience of homeopathy’s strong Kolkata connection, and how the city “which had a ready field of acceptance of homeopathy as the alternative medicine.” He spoke of Calcutta Homeopathic College, set up in 1878. “The country’s first homeopathy college was established in 1878, that too located in Kolkata” the president said, smiling as he referred to Jogn Martin Honigberger, who lived in Calcutta in the 19th century and was called the “cholera doctor” because he managed to cure himself of the disease by taking “ipecac” every half an hour.
Turning the pages of history to Calcuttans who had popularized homeopathy, the like of Mahendra Lal Sircar, Rajendralal Dutta or Babu Rahen Dutta, who had cured Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar of asthma, and to Satish Chandra Samanta, the MP from Bengal who piloted a move in the constituent assembly to establish the Central Council of Homeopathy, Mukherjee said, “There was a growing consciousness in the minds of these people as to how to make homeopathy much more effective; it was necessary to have an organised system of alternative medicine … Today the system has developed.”
The president said a homeopathy centre has been opened at Rashtrapati Bhavan: “In Rashtrapati Bhavan, we have established homeopathy clinics, people tell me that they are fully satisfied with the service.” The president presented the Malati Allen Noble Award to 18 toppers from 196 homeopathic medical colleges across the country and two from colleges in Bangladesh.
