The Hindu Business Line : Protecting traditional knowledge

With the move to protect its traditional intellectual property rights, Kerala is aiming for fair and equitable sharing of the benefits of knowledge acquired over many generations.

Last week, the Directorate of Ayurveda Medical Education announced that it was embarking on an ambitious project to create a digital library of the traditional knowledge systems of Kerala.

According to a report in The Hindu, the project - billed as Traditional Knowledge Digital Library-Kerala (TKDL-K) - aims to establish a database that would help protect the intellectual property rights (IPRs) of traditional healers and ward off the threat of piracy of ayurvedic concepts and medicinal formulations.

WISE MOVE

In the context of Kerala's newfound and ongoing enthusiasm for medical tourism, this move spells wisdom for, around the world, the alert independent traveller is seeking out firsthand, authentic experiences that reflect the ethos and values of a particular culture. Most of such experiences arise from the realm of "traditional knowledge".

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, traditional knowledge - also referred to as "indigenous knowledge" or "local knowledge" - generally refers to the matured long-standing traditions and practices of certain regional, indigenous, or local communities.

Traditional knowledge also encompasses the wisdom, knowledge, and teachings of these communities. In many cases, traditional knowledge has been orally passed for generations from person to person. Some forms of traditional knowledge are expressed through stories, legends, folklore, rituals, songs, and even laws.

KEY ELEMENT

Traditional knowledge has long played a role in Kerala's social, economic and cultural growth. One key element in what has come to be called the "Kerala model of development" is the sustained emphasis on public health.

For very long, Kerala has led the pack in terms of the highest per capita expenditure on public health among all the Indian States. Today Kerala boasts the country's most advanced, equitable and accessible healthcare system.

WELLNESS MISSION

Though Keralites have acquired a reputation for parochialism and inwardness, as far as medicine and wellness are concerned, they tend to display a healthy cosmopolitan benevolence, so much so that their predilection for therapeutic and curative treatment is not confined to traditional systems of medicine.

Thus the modern Western-oriented allopathic and homeopathic systems co-exist happily with a host of alternative indigenous systems, the most renowned of which is ayurveda, the ancient holistic and comprehensive Indian system of therapy that revolves around organism-environment interaction and relies on a rich herbal pharmacopoeia.

LURE OF AYURVEDA

This care and concern for ayurveda has benefited hundreds of Keralites - and now, equally, the rest of the world. Today, the global passion for alternative medicine and therapy has led countless foreigners to travel to Kerala for a bout of rest and recuperation, often combined with a more conventional sun-and-sand holiday.

Little wonder, then, that the German travel magazine Geo Saison called Kerala the "Mecca of Ayurveda."

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com