European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

MEDICAL PLURALISM: GLOBAL AND INDIAN SCENARIO

Dr. Pooja Agrawal, Dr. Virendra Kushwaha*, Dr. Nasreen Fatma Khan, Dr. Harsh Vekaria, Dr. Anuj Kumar

ABSTRACT

Medical pluralism describes the availability of different medical approaches, treatments, and institutions that people can use while pursuing healthcare. If we look closely at how people deal with illness, navigating between home remedies, evidence-based medicines, religious healing, and other alternatives, we can notice that some degree of medical pluralism is present in every contemporary society. The political-economic factors play an important role in shaping the hierarchies of medical practice. Transnational migration, the internet, the rise of alternative medical industries, and the global flow of medical goods and knowledge serve as catalysts for ever-more pluralistic health-seeking practices and ideologies. Medical pluralism is widely practiced in India, which has a rich heritage of traditional medicine that includes and promotes the AYUSH medicinal system with modern medicine. WHO‘s traditional medicine strategy recommends the integration of traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) into national health systems. There is still the need and scope for research and development regarding medical pluralism to strengthen and tackle health issues like pandemics.

Keywords: Traditional medicine, medical pluralism, alternative medicine, complementary medicine.