WORLD HEALTH DAY CELEBRATIONS IN PANAJI: It is time to make the links between the difficult Covid-19 pandemic times and the root causes of climate change and our ill-health, said Dr Pradip Sarmokadam in his keynote address at the State level function to observe World Health Day at the Institute Menezes Braganza hall on April 9, 2022. Dr Sarmokadam is member secretary of the Goa State Biodiversity Board, HOD of Nodal Agency, Goa State Wetland Authority, as also nodal officer of the Change Steering Committee of Goa. The event was organized by the Health Education Bureau (Directorate of Health Services). Dr Sarmokadam observed that we must accept that if nature is healthy, we too will be healthy, “Make the link between our health and nature is the food, water, air and soil. We should understand that our traditional knowledge is the great repository and let us not underestimate it.” Picture above sees him lighting the ceremonial lamp along with Chief Medical Officer Dr Rajendra Borkar, State Epidemiologist Dr Utkarsh Betodkar, Deputy Director-Dental Dr Ujwala Prabhudessai, Medical Superintendent (North District Hospital) Dr Vandana Dhume, Deputy Director (AYUSH) Dr Minal Joshi, Dr Geeta Kakodar and others. Dr Ira Almeida gave the welcome address while Dr Siona Gomes proposed the vote of thanks, Adv Pallavi Mulgaonkar compered the function.

AS a country we are very good when it comes to celebrations! If only we could celebrate the health of the planet or Mother Earth and the state of our own health, collectively. Year after year we realize that our health individually and collectively is linked inherently with the good health of the good earth – we are the world and the world is dependent on Mother Earth and Father Sky for air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat. We take these so much for granted and have transformed our lifestyles from one of simple needs to complex technology-driven lifestyles of greed beyond reason!
There’s going to be no peace and harmony on earth as long as arrogant humans and governments just need an excuse to waste public money which is people’s money and which we can ill-afford to waste – even in a country running on bankruptcy these days (funny or not so funny how this and that fund money is drains away into private pockets in and out of government — if you have noticed). When governments increasingly become parasites on their people they just strangulate democracy, the only system of governance we know which offers a level playing field to all to pursue wellbeing in mind and body, heart and soul.
When a government grows rich and fat on its people while the people themselves grow poorer and unhealthy… it is a dark day full of evil impotency, no? But this to say April 7 is observed as World Health Day every year to promote awareness of people’s general health and well-being around the world and this year’s 72nd World Health Day motto is “Our Planet, Our Health.” That means healthy planet, healthy life and unhealthy planet, unhealthy life. The two are intimately intertwined. And our stressed out and constantly traumatised world today is in deep peril – if only we care enough!
Do you know that the first World Health Day was celebrated and observed in 1950 and the day was set aside to celebrate the creation of the World Health Organisation, established in 1948? Don’t know if you watched the celebration of India’s tradition of preventive healthcare enshrined in Ayurveda and as demonstrated at the Yoga Utsav organised at the Red Fort on April 7 (World Health Day). As usual it was mega performance in which politicians, bureaucrats, khaas aadmi participated led by yoga gurus. I’m sorry I missed it but will say that if there’s one good thing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has done it is bringing back to life the country’s alternate traditional systems of healthcare and medicine.
Today we see Ayurveda proliferating in a myriad ways in the country, updated and glamorized. However alternate healthcare has also steadily stepped up market and beyond the reach of the common people. What was once available almost freely to everybody who sought it has now become the preserve of khaas aadmi pursuits.
Hey, go to your nearest Ayurveda facility and you will find even a basic Ayurveda hair or foot massage costing a Rs1,000 plus,plus, it’s the starting price for any alternate healthcare treatment! Goa’s primary health care centres of which there are many may promote AYUSH messages of healthcare and give away free tonics and herbal oils – but it’s all very selective.
Few public health establishments offer free or nominally priced yoga sessions for youth, adults, seniors or for that matter even a decent massage is hard to come by – we know both yoga and various massage therapies improve flexibility, build up strength, improve balance. Not to mention cheer one up afterwards! Of course at Thursday’s mega show we saw Lok Sabha speaker, Om Birla, MLAs, ambassadors, yoga guru, some 3,000 yoga sadhak show off the standardised AYUSH yoga protocol at the Red Fort in Delhi.

We watched and admired what has become a spectator sporty now! We know about nidra, pranayama, dhyana and so much more, but in real life preventive healthcare is a distant dream for the many in the country from the bottoms up? I hate to say it but government patronage has succeeded in pushing AYUSH preventive healthcare into more expensive healthcare which only khaas aadmi can afford.
We remain a poor rich little country in every way because aam aadmi still struggles for a decent living daily! For example, I’m told that now we have something called a Jan Dhan Loot Yojana in which Rs26.51 lakh was collected from people as fuel tax while Rs10.86 lakh crore loans were written off for the rich! We also know the story of our banking systems which few trust anymore. We have a khaas aadmi sarkar…which has lost touch with aam aadmi. To what extent, I’ll leave you to decide for yourself.
BUT to stay with International World Health Day at local level I urge Chief Minister Pramod Sawant (who is currently visiting Kolhapur to inaugurate the International Centre of Ayurveda Yoga and Naturopathy by Tapasya Health & Wellness at Nimshirgaon) to invest in AYUSH preventive healthcare in Goa’s something like 24 primary health care centres (14 with attached hospitals) and 213 sub-centres with 30 resident medical officers attached….although funds are allocated nobody goes to a primary health centre or an urban health care centre to learn the rudiments of yoga or to enjoy the benefits of an Ayurveda massage!
Hey, the government of Goa is supposed to have achieved the goal of health for all by 2000 – have we, the people in Goa achieved it? Not in preventive healthcare, I assure you. Preventive healthcare is promoted by the State and Central governments big time and public funds are allocated majorly – but very little trickles down to benefit aam aadmi. This is not the case in Kerala however which is the traditional home of Ayurveda. All this said, Happy International World Health Day, my dears!
FRANKLY, there is much to be learned about preventive healthcare and much of it is really rooted in naturopathy. A lot of traditional ayurveda (“science of life”) is rooted in naturopathy and at one time I enjoyed visiting the naturopathy ashrams of old which Gandhiji set up…I dare say most have become terribly upmarket affairs now (may be not, check out Uruli Kanchan if you wish, my favourite). But (sigh) like khadi the wellbeing business blossoming in the country too has become a luxury label in the realm of the monied classes. Ayurveda has going up market and out of common people’s reach.
STILL, if you have money to treat yourself to an Ayurveda healthcare facility, I like the sound of this fairly new facility which Goan industrialist extraordinary Nana Bandekar has invested in at Sawantwadi. I dare say it’s one of his best investments! It’s called the Sarth Ayurveda Retreat & Wellness Centre , located about 10 km from Sawantwadi (known for its wooden toys and salubrious environment).
Sarth offers both Ayurveda and wellness packages which you may want to find out more about I hear they have a Dr Ajith Rajigare here who is very good at setting right the nameless health afflictions folk suffer from nowadays.
Ayurveda believes in preventive healthcare first and as such : “Swasthasya Swasthya Rakshnam/ Aaturasya Vikar Prashamanam” translates “To protect and maintain health of healthy person and to alleviate disorders in the diseased.” Actually there are quite a Ayurveda facilities in Goa but they’re private companies and I’m not sure how good they are for all the pricing they command on their menu of “treatments.” I hate it when Ayurveda is reduced to beauty parlour offerings at premium cost!
RECENTLY, I met a senior citizen, the mother of my friend Joanne Pinto Pereira, who during a lunch outing spoke of the Goa that once was! I was recounting some of my blues of life when suddenly was treated to words of wisdom… Claudina Perpetuo Sucorro de Tavares e Pinto, offered me the words of wisdom. Quoting from the Portuguese, she said,“Remember that a clear conscience is the best pillow even in the darkest dungeon!” I was zapped, where did that come from! The words linger in memory and I would like to say thank-you to this disarming Sashtikar senior, who loves to reminisce about the golden days of Goa when material hardships there were in plenty, but so was grace and etiquette! She lives in Mumbai but pines for Goa every now and again and comes to visit the family’s ancestral homes when someone comes down from abroad or Mumbai.
On that note here it’s avjo, poiteverem, selamat datang, au revoir, arrivedecci and vachun yeta here for now!

—Mme Butterfly