Aligarh Muslim University academic wins top UAE award for alternative medicine

NEW DELHI: Wazahat Husain, a leading academic from the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has won an international award for traditional, complementary and alternative medicine. Husain, a retired chairman of the department of botany at the AMU, received the second Sheikh Zayed International Award on Monday in an event organised by the Zayed Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation.

The foundation is a UAE-based non-governmental, non-profit organisation that invests in developing human capital to improve the quality of life, according to the Foundation's website. The award aims to give recognition to eminent academics and scientists of Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicine (TCAM ) globally, and TCAM physicians from the UAE, for enhancing TCAM knowledge and practices, and contributing to improving the quality of life for humanity, it said.

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A plant taxonomy expert, Husain has been conferred lifetime achievement awards twice, once jointly by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the AYUSH ministry and then by the Wildlife Institute of India and Department of Wildlife Sciences, AMU. Speaking to PTI, Husain said he was honoured to be representing AMU and India at the pinnacle of his academic career. “Academics do not work for recognition, but when they come, they must be accepted with humility. I dedicate this award to my university and my country,” Husain said.

According to WHO, traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skill, and practices specific to indigenous experiences and beliefs which are used in the maintenance of health, while alternative or complementary medicine refers to a broad set of healthcare practices that are not part of a country’s own tradition or conventional medicine and are not fully integrated into the dominant healthcare system.