15 traditional community healthcare providers get Centre’s certification

Our Correspondent

TINSUKIA: Towards a significant step to boost the morale of traditional folk healers of Assam, as many as 15 persons have been certified under the Voluntary Certification Scheme for Traditional Community Healthcare Providers (VCSTCHP) which is owned jointly by the Quality Council of India (QCI), New Delhi and the Foundation for the Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions, Bangalore, stated a communiqué of QCI issued by Dr Debjani Roy, advisor of QCI.

The third certification cycle under the Voluntary Certification Scheme for the Traditional Community Healthcare Providers (VCSTCHP) was conducted in five districts – Jorhat, Golaghat, Sivasagar, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji from June 12 to June 14, which had its national launch on March 24, 2017 at Thiruvananthapuram.

The three-day evaluation for the assessment of the knowledge and skills was conducted by the QCI approved Third Party Personnel Certification Body (PrCB) – the North East Christian University (NECU), Dimapur, Nagaland as per the competence criteria laid down under the scheme. A total of 19 Traditional Community Healthcare Providers (TCHP) applied for certification from five districts of Assam. The evaluation was conducted by two teams of trained and empanelled senior TCHP evaluators from the States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland and each team was led by an Ayurveda doctor - Dr Shanjamo Ezung, Government of Assam, and Dr Imlikumba, North Eastern Institute of Folk Medicine (NEIFM), Ministry of AYUSH, Arunachal Pradesh from Arunachal Pradesh. The certification head along with two supporting staff of the PrCB accompanied the evaluation teams.

Around 19 applicant TCHPs raised the certification fee from their own resources and applied voluntarily for the assessment of their knowledge and skill to get certified under the ISO 17024 based Personnel Certification. Out of the 19 applicants, 15 were recommended for certification, of which two were female and 13 were male TCHPs for common ailment, arthritis and jaundice. This brings the number of certified TCHPs under the Scheme to 30 covering the States of Assam, Chhattisgarh and Tripura, the release added.

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