The Union Government’s much publicised initiative aimed to provide cheaper, generic medicines to people in Jammu and Kashmir through Jan Aushadhi stores looks to be non-starters. The ambitious project was launched in December 22, 2014 but the irony is that most of the drug sales outlets are without life-saving drugs. On official records there are 20 Jan Aushadhi stores – five in Jammu District, seven in Kashmir and two in Ladakh – but none of them has been provided with an ample supply of generic drugs. In the face of non-availability of generic drugs doctors find best alternative of prescribing the drugs by brands and the business grows in multiples. In such a situation the opening of Jan Aushadhi stores talks about government’s myopic and apathetic attitude towards health care for common man with an aim of providing cost-effective drugs even for critical and life-saving problems. On the contrary the ‘doctor-chemist’ nexus cultivated by the big pharmaceutical companies has become much strong and prosperous. The mushroom growth of chemist outlets and doctors clinic along with it is an open indicator of this growing nexus. The allurement of commission on prescription has been the biggest hurdle for the proposed affordable medicines out of Jan Aushadhi. Even Union Budget proposal of a National Dialysis Programme announced in 2017 to be rolled through private-public participation or popularly known as PPP mode to make medical treatment more accessible to the people remains a far off dream. The programme also allows duty-free import of dialysis equipment which could lower treatment cost. Over two lakh renal patients are added every year in the country and the distribution of the health facilities are skewed. The proposed mission envisages to provide affordable and reachable dialysis facilities up to district hospital level. Given the state of health care facilities and services in J&K the future of such a proposal can be explained in one word pathetic. Despite all the praise for the health services, poor are left at the mercy of private doctors or government doctor’s private practices and now with the dialysis facilities coming to district-level one can imagine the state of affairs.
