Ayush Ministry Ties Up With BHASHINI To Make Digital Healthcare Services Available In 22 Languages

In a move aimed at breaking language barriers in healthcare delivery, the Union Ayush Ministry has partnered with the Digital India BHASHINI Division under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to roll out multilingual access across Ayush digital platforms using artificial intelligence-powered translation and speech technologies.

The collaboration, announced under the “BHASHINI Rajyam – A BHASHINI Sahayogi Program", is expected to bring Ayush services and traditional healthcare knowledge closer to people by making them available in all 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

Officials with the Union Ayush Ministry explained that the partnership would integrate BHASHINI—India’s national language technology platform—with several digital initiatives developed under Ayush Grid, the Ministry’s flagship digital health ecosystem covering healthcare services, education, research, drug regulation, and citizen outreach.

The initiative is being seen as a major push towards democratising access to traditional systems of medicine, especially for people in non-English-speaking and rural regions who often face linguistic hurdles while accessing digital healthcare resources.

According to the ministry officials, the integration will allow Ayush portals, mobile applications, and AI-enabled healthcare platforms to offer multilingual support through real-time translation, speech recognition, and voice-based interaction systems.

“The objective is to ensure that language does not become a barrier in accessing healthcare information and digital services,” an official said.

The collaboration will also focus on building specialised medical terminology databases in Indian languages and creating AI models tailored for Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa, and Homoeopathy.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Dr. Subodh Kumar, Director in the Ministry of Ayush, and Amitabh Nag, Chief Executive Officer of the Digital India BHASHINI Division, in the presence of Union Ayush Secretary Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha and Joint Secretary Dr. Kavita Jain.

Kotecha said India’s traditional systems of medicine represented a vast repository of knowledge accumulated over centuries, and making that knowledge accessible in regional languages was critical for inclusive healthcare delivery.

“India’s linguistic diversity should become a strength rather than a limitation in healthcare communication. This partnership will help create digital systems that can serve citizens in the language they are most comfortable with,” he said.

Kotecha added that the collaboration would help strengthen multilingual capabilities within the Ayush ecosystem while supporting the development of future-ready AI-based healthcare tools.

Dr. Jain highlighted the role of emerging technologies in improving healthcare accessibility at the grassroots level. She said AI-powered multilingual systems demonstrated during the interaction showed how digital tools could simplify doctor-patient communication and improve service delivery.

Among the technologies showcased were AI-enabled speech interfaces capable of assisting doctors during consultations and generating prescriptions in multiple languages. Officials said such systems could be particularly useful in rural and underserved areas where language differences often complicate medical consultations.

Amitabh Nag said inclusive AI systems were essential to ensuring equal access to digital public services across the country.

“Our focus is on building language technologies that can support citizens in their preferred language and make digital ecosystems more inclusive,” he said.

On the occasion, the officials also showcased several citizen-focused innovations developed through BHASHINI, including real-time meeting transcription systems, automated minutes generation through the “Shrutlekh” platform, and voice-assisted tools designed to help blue-collar workers create CVs in regional languages.

The discussions also explored the use of the NAMASTE Portal—a digital repository of standardised Ayush terminologies—for creating multilingual glossaries and training future healthcare AI models.

Ayush Grid Officer on Special Duty Naman Goyal said some Ayush platforms, including the Yoga Portal and the MAISP master portal, had already integrated BHASHINI plugins on a pilot basis and received encouraging feedback from users accessing services in local languages.

Experts believe the initiative could play an important role in expanding the reach of digital healthcare services, particularly in regions where language remains a major obstacle to awareness, consultation, and treatment access.