India: Traditional Medicine and Healthcare Practices (Summer)

Key Features

Explore how an ancient civilization maintains vibrant traditional medicine and healthcare systems while experiencing very high economic growth and modernization.

This program examines many of the social, economic, cultural, and legal paradigms that provide a context for healthcare service delivery among diverse groups in India. Students consider how policy and practice link together to either support or hinder specific health systems, and how uneven access to modern healthcare may affect the sustainability of traditional systems.

The program’s major topics of study are as follows:

Ayurveda in philosophy and its practical applications as a healing system
Yoga as preventative and curative medicine
Indigenous health systems in rural communities in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
The Himalayas as a repository of medicinal herbs

Students consider how other issues, including climate change, globalization, and India’s modern development agenda, may be impacting health services and healthcare access across the country. By visiting Himalayan locations — home to some of India’s rich botanical natural resources — students learn how environment and healthcare are linked at state and local levels.