Towards affordable healthcare in India: ‘Jan Aushadhi’ to ‘Jan Upyogi’

News: India marked the Jan Aushadhi Diwas 2022 in mid-February.

About Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP)

Prime Minister launched Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) in 2015, with a vision to provide affordable and quality medicine to the citizens of India.

The scheme was established under the department of pharmaceuticals of the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

Since its establishment in 2015, more than 8,000 janaushadhi kendras (centres) have been operationalised across India. These centres offer generic drugs and surgical items at an affordable price.

In the long run, PMBJP aims to make healthcare affordable, accessible and acceptable by all the citizens.

Benefits of PMBJP:

– It serves employment opportunities to the human resources in the pharma sector. It provides financial assistance and support to the qualified personnel to open Janaushadhi Kendra and generate income.

– In addition to the direct employment opportunity, Janaushadhi Kendra generates peripheral employment in associated supply chain, transportation and maintenance sectors.

What is the need for affordable healthcare?

Considering the following vital factors, it is important to make healthcare affordable to the population:

– Health is one of the central pillars of a nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) that indicates its prosperity. Hence, every nation aims to provide good healthcare to its citizens at an affordable cost through various initiatives and schemes.

– The budget allocation to healthcare is less than 3 per cent. India’s population is dominated by rural domiciles and mid-income groups.

– About one-third population of our country is devoid of health insurance. The prevailing diseases and pandemic outbreaks add to the perils of the situation.

– Medicines (aushadhi) and surgical equipment have a larger share in healthcare. Making them reach the common mass of our society solves a major issue in healthcare. This makes ‘Jan Aushadhi’ a jan-upyogi (useful for the mass).

– India’s out-of-pocket expenditure (OOP) on healthcare is more than 60%, according to Niti Aayog’s latest report. This is significantly above the average for lower-middle income countries. Costly patented drugs further contribute towards a higher OOP.

What are some issues with PMBJP that need to be addressed?

– increasing the outreach of the Janaushadhi Kendra.

– promotion for increasing awareness of PMBJP.

– maintaining the affordable price of the generic medicines despite increasing inflation and supply cost.

What is the way forward?

First, to increase the outreach of Janaushadhi Kendra, an increase in the healthcare budget for infrastructure and financial support is required.

– In addition, PPP models for generic drugs should be looked into to increase competitive participation of more private players and expand the outreach. Training and development of pharmaceutical staff will also be required in expansion of Janaushadhi Kendra.

Second, to spread awareness about PMBJP and Janaushadhi Kendra, collaboration with local hospitals, clinics and doctors is required.

Third, to maintain the affordable prices of the generic drugs, supply-side intervention is required. This primarily includes:

– R&D of drugs to bring the efficacy of generic drugs at par with that of patented drugs, at less cost.

– Efficiency in production, storage and supply chain would also help in slashing the input cost and thereby, maintain the affordable prices.

Source: This post is based on the article “Towards affordable healthcare in India: ‘Jan Aushadhi’ to ‘Jan Upyogi’” published in Down to Earth on 28^th Mar 22.