Imagine a well-equipped hospital carrying medical facilities to rescue people from dreaded diseases like diabetes and cancer at your doorstep.
It may seem impossible for people in the remote and hilly terrains of Asom, but this is what veteran herbal medicine practitioner Gunaram Khanikar is all set to make possible. With a mission to take the cardinal message 'Prevention is better than cure' to the rural masses, Mr Khanikar and his NGO, Research and Training Centre on Indian Traditional Treatment(RTCITT), is gearing up to open India's first Mobile Hospital of herbal medicines. The hospital, to be launched in upper Asom's Golaghat district, would carry herbal medicines, samples of aromatic plants found in the region, photographs of the various herbal plants as well as books containing information on the side-effect-free herbal medicines and promote herbal treatment in the state. ''Our basic aim is to popularise herbal treatment among the rural masses and collect and preserve the medicinal plants abundantly found in the forests and jungles of the region. We want to promote the message that prevention is better than cure,'' Managing Director of the NGO Mr Khanikar said. Funded by local MP Dip Gogoi, the hospital in a six-wheeler will also take out an exhibition and a food consciousness mission to promote healthy food habits as well as herbal medicine cultivation as employment generation sources. He said, ''Herbal medicines are a tried and tested treatment method for prevention of many diseases like cancer and diabetes and the North east is immensely rich in herbal and aromatic plants. But due to lack of awareness we are yet to reap benefit''. The hospital will also be accompanied by eight resource persons comprising ayurvedic doctors and nurses who will try to provide ayurvedic treatment among the masses and children in the schools and colleges in the rural areas. ''Our resource persons will provide training to children and youths on the identification of the herbal and aromatic plants and their commercial cultivation. We will also open a garden of herbal medicinal plants in each school and college of the state, particularly in the rural areas,'' Mr Khanikar added KOUSHIK HAZARIKA http://asom.co.nr
