PUBLIC AWARENESS

As part of its public awareness Campaign especially among the Rural population, Samajam organises Ayurveda Insight Missions. While free check up and medical advice is given and medicines to the deserving, Samajam stresses on the agrarian population to grow more herbs by making them aware of the sustainable, ecological and cultural importance of Ayurveda in the Contemporary World and also its vast market potential with herbs and herbal Medicine. 

Fostering health by old means and new, the Samajam is supporting projects to help the people to make the best of a precious natural resource: plants used in traditional medicines and modern pharmaceuticals. As a result of these efforts, communities throughout the region are beginning to conserve and sustainably harvest plants that have provided remedies for hundreds of years and that yield ingredients for some of the most advanced medications available today. This undertaking affects more than the state of Kerala because plants used for both kinds of medicines are exported to countries all over the world.

More than 80 percent of the people in India rely on Ayurveda and other herbal remedies as a principal means of preventing and curing illnesses, and several traditional medical systems are based on the use of plants. There are several advantages to such systems: the plants involved are readily available, are easy to transport, and do not spoil quickly. Remedies based on these plants often have minimal side effects, and the relatively high cost of synthetic medicines makes traditional herbal medicines an affordable choice for the poor in these lands. 

Ayurveda is part of a time-honoured and time-tested culture that still intrigues people today. A culture that has successfully used nature to treat primary and complex ailments for over 5,000 years obviously has a contemporary relevance. In an age when toxic drugs are increasingly unwelcome and when thinking people are using viable alternatives, our medical heritage must be documented, saved and used.

India has been considered as treasure house of valuable medicinal and aromatic plant species. Ministry of Environment and Forests have identified and documented over 9500 plant species considering their importance in the pharmaceutical industry. In the present context of 'back to nature' in health care, it is relevant that these valuable plant species are not only preserved but also their cultivation developed in order to meet the entire demand of the domestic industries as also to exploit the bright prospect for export. Shift from collection to cultivation of medicinal & aromatic plants will also ensure purity, authenticity and sustainable supply of raw materials required for herbal drugs, including polyherbals. Even though agro-techniques have been developed for large number of medicinal plants by the State Agricultural Universities, Due to unorganized marketing arrangements this sector has not exploited the full potential. 

Samajam has appointed a team exclusively for the growth of Medicinal Plants with buy back arrangement with participation of the local public. The nursery at Samajam provides the seeds, seedlings etc. at a very low cost and gives the local public the necessary assistance in planting, growing and harvesting. Since the requirement of Samajam itself is large this project should support a large population for a sustainable living in an ecologically fragile world. The project assumes considerable significance in national economy in view of its vast opportunities for employment and income generation.