Sunday Reading

New Delhi, 21 July 2009

Ayurveda Goes Digital

SAFEGUARDING PIRACY BY WEST

By Suraj Saraf

Two important developments have recently taken place for streamlining practice of the Indian System of Medicine (Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani) and to curb massive copying of its long practiced formulations by the West. Indeed, it comes as disturbing and shocking news that till now this piracy has resulted in 15,000 patents of medical plants by the westerners. There would be a threat of losing 2000 more every year.

However, in order to safeguard and curb this huge loss of traditional medicinal knowledge of the country, a massive exercise has been undertaken by the Union health department of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) and the Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to document 2,33,000 formulations belonging to ISM viz 81000 Ayurvedic, 1.4 lakh Unani and 13,000 Siddha formulations.

It has taken eight years of hard and dedicated work. Two hundred scientists and researchers from the CSIR and the department of AYUSH had scientifically converted information of traditional Indian medicine from Hindi, Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Tamil to five international languages i.e. English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. The CSIR has thus created TKDL (Traditional Knowledge Digital Library), without which India would lose 1000 new patents every year.  

In the past, patents have been granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) on the use of 385 Indian medicinal plants such as papaya, Indian long pepper, Kali Tulsi, Pudina, ginger, potato, isabgol, aaenla, jira, soyabean, tomato, almond, walnut and methi. Thus, New Delhi decided to ink a landmark agreement with the EPO, so that TKDL’s database would be available to the patent examinees at the EPO “for establishing prior art”, in case of patent applications based on ISM.

However, the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library’s information would be restricted only for patent research and examination purposes. The EPO will not be able to disclose it to a third party. While New Delhi will help EPO with search assistance, the latter will, once every three months, inform India about what information was used as citation from the Traditional library.  

The patent battle however, is a long-drawn procedure. According to CSIR’s Director-General Prof Samir Brahamchari, on an average, it takes five to seven years to oppose a granted patent internationally and cost anything from a whopping Rs one and three crore. Therefore, cost of protecting all ISM formulations in the absence of TKDL, would be staggering and completely unaffordable.

Thanks to the digital library, people will now think twice before even applying for dubious patents. The library will ensure that traditional Indian knowhow is safe, used by Indian companies for the benefit of Indians. Till now AYUSH has documented 8,1000 Ayurveda, 1.4 lakh Unani and 13,000 Siddha formulations. Encouragingly, the TKDL has also become a model for other countries wanting to defend their traditional knowledge from misappropriation. South Africa, African Regional Property Organisation, Mangolia, Nigeria, Malaysia and Thailand have already asked India to help them replicate TKDL.

The decision to create the library was taken in 2001 in the aftermath of wrong patents granted by the US Patent and Trade Mark Office on wound-healing properties of Turmeric and an antifungal property of Neem granted by the European Patent Office, even though the plants were being used for centuries under ISM for such benefits. Well, if TKDL had existed earlier, then the country would have been spared the international disputes regarding patenting of Neem, Turmeric and Basmati.  

In a study conducted in 2004, the Americans had granted 4896 patents on medicinal plants, 80 per cent of which were of Indian origin. In a study of 760 such plants, it was found that 850 patents never have been granted. Over 300 to 500 such patents are granted every year, mainly due to lack of access to documented knowledge in India.

In another important development, Ayurvedic doctors who do not possess requisite qualifications prescribed under the Indian Medicine Central Council Act (IMCCA) can not practice anywhere in India as they like, as per a Supreme Court ruling in the first quarter of the year. The judgement came in a case wherein Ayurvedic Enlisted Doctors’ Association had challenged the Maharashtra Government’s decision to prosecute those practicing Ayurveda without being registered with the IMCCA.

The plea of the appellants in the case was that they were registered as practitioners under the Bihar Development of Ayurvedic and Unani System of Medicine Act and argued that though they did not hold any degree or diploma or certificate of any recognized institution, they possessed sufficient knowledge and skills requisite for educational practice of medicines and surgery.

However, according to the Supreme Court if the Ayurvedic practitioners are registered in a particular State they could not automatically practice in other parts of the country too. Such doctors can only practice in other parts of the country provided their qualification is recognized under the IMPCO, said a supreme court Bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Mukundakam Sharma.

Under section 15 of IMPCCA the right to practice anywhere in the country is restricted and permissible only if the name of the practitioners finds places in the central register as per the qualifications prescribed under section 2(1)(h) of IMPCCA. Section 8(1) (h) prescribes the qualifications and institutions recognized by the Council for the purpose of imparting training in Ayurveda.

The Apex Court rejected the argument that such restriction violates the Fundamental Right under Article 14 of the Constitution i.e. no discrimination between citizens. The appellants had argued that they fulfilled the conditions imposed by the regulations of Bihar State and their names were entered in the Bihar State Council’s register. As such Maharashtra government could not ban their practice on the ground that their names were not registered in the IMPCCA, as such a restriction violated Article 14 of the Constitution. But the Apex court rejected the plea saying that under article 19 (6) of the Constitution, the government can always put “reasonable restrictions” on a citizen’s fundamental right.

With the Ayurvedic practitioners getting a legal dose, there is a growing confidence that the 5,000-year-old Indian traditional system of medicine is getting the attention it deserves. After all Ayurveda is gaining the reputation of being one of the most important systems of mind-body medicine and natural healing.—INFA

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