Title : Contemporary approach to preserving traditional healthcare
Abstract:
The contemporary society is witnessing a paradigm shift in the processes and systems of learning. While on one hand it is extensively dependent on technology based learning like Artificial Intelligence, on the other hand, there is also the growing realisation for acknowledging the knowledge and skills of a large number of people belonging to the traditional communities and their value to tackling some of the modern day issues of well being and sustainability. Though some of the traditional knowledge is available in ancient texts viz Patanjali Yoga Sutra for Yoga but mostly the traditional communities have gained their knowledge and skills, expressed as competency, in their respective domains of service by helping and observing their knowledgeable elders at work thereby acquiring their competency through family lineage and mostly remaining in the realm of oral tradition. The challenge therefore is to preserve and promote traditional knowledge in various sectors for the benefit of the society. The modern day tools of quality management have provided an excellent route to accomplishing that as shown in the experiences of certifying practitioners of traditional knowledge in India in which the authors have been actively involved. The 21st century is being subjected to the worldwide movement for defining competence based on evaluation required to perform a particular job regardless of the route by which such competence is acquired - especially when issues of general well-being (mental, physical and spiritual), health and safety are involved. There is also the global acceptance for the concepts of Accreditation and Certification in various sectors which have potential application for the traditional knowledge practitioners. The certification of the traditional knowledge practitioners is gaining popularity, which can be applied to a variety of traditional knowledge domains such as Agriculture, Architecture, Healthcare, Music, and Performing Art and Culture. Certification can ensure the practitioners’ empowerment, social respectability, quality assurance and worldwide acceptance. The process of certification requires that ‘Standards’ be developed with the help of standard development experts and the knowledgeable elders/practitioners of the community for specific domains say yoga or traditional healing. The Minimum Standard of Competence (MSC) thus developed is used to assess uniformly the competence of the traditional knowledge practitioners through a transparent mechanism by the third party professional Certification Bodies leading to their certification. The certification process follows the international standard ISO/IEC 17024:2012 for Personnel Certification and the personnel certification bodies are duly accredited as per this standard to attest their competence too. In India, two personnel certification schemes have been developed and implemented for the traditional knowledge sector demonstrating how the concepts of standards and certification can be applied to promote traditional knowledge and enhance trust in it. The Yoga Professional Certification Scheme has achieved international acceptance and yoga professionals are being certified globally under Yoga Certification Board and approximately 3000 Traditional Community Healthcare Providers (TCHP) commonly known as ‘Folk Healers’ or ‘Traditional Healers’ have been certified who treat patients for 6 specific ailments based on knowledge of local medicinal plants under Quality Council of India. These Folk Healers render valuable service mostly to rural, remote, inaccessible areas, which, if harnessed judiciously can be of immense benefit for the country at large The paper describes the experiences of development and operation of these schemes and the impact they have had which can be potentially replicated in other areas of traditional knowledge.
