March 7, 2019, to be celebrated as ‘Janaushadhi Diwas’ across India

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : “ With the initiative of Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi in the direction of making quality healthcare affordable for all, the Government has taken important steps to make affordable and quality generic medicine popular among the people through Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP),” said Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers, Road Transport & Highways, Shipping on March 6, 2019, while addressing the media here.

The Minister informed that for providing further impetus and creating awareness about use of generic medicines, it has been decided to celebrate March 7, 2019, as ‘Janaushadhi Diwas’ across India. The Prime Minister will interact with owners of Janaushadhi Kendras and beneficiaries of the scheme across the country through video conference at 1 pm on March 7, 2019. Talking about the future course of development, Mandaviya said that with this pace of progress, all blocks in the country would have at least 1 PMBJP Kendra by 2020.

Referring to Prime Minister’s vision that no poor person should die due to non-availability of quality affordable medicine in the country,  Mandaviya said that with developments like more and more doctors prescribing generic medicine and opening of over 5050 Janaushadhi stores across 652 districts, awareness and availability of high quality affordable generic medicine has increased in the country. About 10-15 lakh people benefit from Janaushadhi medicine per day and the market share of generic medicine has grown over three fold from 2% to 7%in last 3 years, the Minister added.

Mandaviya said that health is one of the most important part of development and this Government has been incessantly working to ensure quality healthcare affordable for all through schemes like Ayushman Bharat, PMBJP among others.The Janaushadhi medicine have played a big role in bringing down the out of pocket expenditure of patients suffering from life threatening diseases in India. The PMBJP scheme has led to total savings of approximately Rs 1,000 crore for common citizens as these medicine are cheaper by 50% to 90% of average market price, according to a PIB release.

CEO, Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India (BPPI), Sachin Kumar Singh, said that the PMBJP is also providing a good source of self-employment with self-sustainable and regular earnings. Average sales per store per month has grown to Rs 1.50 lakh (including OTC & other products) as per a survey conducted by the BPPI, which implements the scheme. Four big warehouses at Delhi, Guwahati, Bengaluru, and Chennai have been opened to ensure adequate availability of Janaushadhi medicine at all PMBJP kendras.