The Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) was launched with a noble and much-needed objective: to make quality medicines available to the poor and middle classes at affordable prices. For a region like Jammu and Kashmir, where a significant portion of the population depends on public hospitals and struggles with limited purchasing power, the success of Jan Aushadhi Kendras—especially those located inside government hospitals—should have been transformative. Unfortunately, the ground reality tells a completely different story.
Across government hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir, Jan Aushadhi stores remain glaringly understocked. While signboards promise affordable treatment, the shelves inside often reveal a cruel irony—basic medicines may be available, but a large number of essential and critical care drugs are conspicuously missing. Patients suffering from heart ailments, diabetes, hypertension, kidney disorders, cancer-related complications, infections, and post-surgical conditions are routinely told that the required medicines are “not available” and are advised to purchase them from private medical shops outside the hospital premises.
This defeats the very purpose of the Jan Aushadhi scheme.
For poor patients, the hospital visit does not end with diagnosis and prescription. It extends into an exhausting and financially draining search for medicines in the open market, where prices are often exorbitant and beyond their reach. Many are forced to either borrow money, skip doses, reduce medication frequency, or abandon treatment altogether. In critical care cases, delays caused by unavailability of medicines can prove fatal.
The government must ask itself a fundamental question: What is the logic of setting up Jan Aushadhi stores inside hospitals if they cannot supply the medicines most commonly prescribed by doctors?
Doctors in government hospitals frequently prescribe medicines that are either unavailable at Jan Aushadhi Kendras or supplied in extremely limited quantities. Critical care medicines, life-saving injectables, antibiotics, cardiac drugs, insulin variants, cancer-support medicines, dialysis-related drugs, and emergency care pharmaceuticals are either missing or irregularly stocked. As a result, patients are pushed towards private pharmacies, where branded medicines are sold at several times the price of their generic equivalents.
This situation also creates suspicion and frustration among patients, many of whom believe—rightly or wrongly—that there is a nexus between certain hospital prescriptions and private drug sellers. Even if such allegations are unfounded, the absence of medicines at Jan Aushadhi stores fuels mistrust and undermines the credibility of public healthcare institutions.
The issue is not merely administrative; it is deeply humanitarian.
Jammu and Kashmir already faces unique healthcare challenges—difficult terrain, limited specialist availability in rural areas, harsh winters, and economic vulnerability. In such circumstances, affordable medicine is not a luxury but a necessity. When poor patients are forced to buy costly medicines from the market, the promise of “healthcare for all” rings hollow.
The government must urgently review why Jan Aushadhi stores are failing to function as intended. Is it due to poor demand forecasting? Delayed procurement? Inefficient supply chains? Lack of coordination between hospital authorities and Jan Aushadhi managers? Or simple administrative apathy? Whatever the reasons, accountability must be fixed.
Equally important is the need to align hospital prescriptions with the Jan Aushadhi formulary. Doctors should be encouraged—and where appropriate, sensitised—to prescribe medicines that are available under the scheme, without compromising patient care. At the same time, the Jan Aushadhi list must be expanded and customised to meet the actual disease burden of Jammu and Kashmir, including non-communicable diseases, cancer care, and emergency medicines.
Regular audits of Jan Aushadhi stores inside hospitals are essential. Stock availability should be monitored in real time, and shortages must be addressed immediately. Transparency mechanisms, such as publicly displayed lists of available medicines and their prices, can empower patients and reduce exploitation.
Most importantly, the government must remember that schemes like Jan Aushadhi are not meant to exist on paper or as political slogans. Their success is measured in the relief they bring to the poorest patient standing in a hospital queue, clutching a prescription and hoping to afford treatment.
If Jan Aushadhi stores continue to remain understocked while patients are forced into the open market, the scheme will remain a symbolic gesture rather than a meaningful intervention. Jammu and Kashmir deserves better. The government must act decisively to restore the soul of the Jan Aushadhi mission—affordable, accessible, and dignified healthcare for all.
