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

“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 medicines 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 while addressing the media today.

The Minister informed thatfor providing further impetus & creating awareness about use of generic medicines, it has been decided to celebrate 7^th March 2019 as ‘Janaushadhi Diwas’ across India. Hon’ble Prime Minister will interact with owners of Janaushadhi Kendras and beneficiaries of the scheme across the country through video conference at 1:00 pm on 7^th March, 2019. Talking about the future course of development, Mandaviya added that with this pace of progress, all blocks in the country would have atleast 1 PMBJP Kendra by 2020.

Citing Prime Minister’s vision that no poor person should die due to non-availability of good quality affordable medicines in the country, Mandaviya said that with developments like more and more doctors prescribing generic medicines and opening of over 5050Janaushadhistores across 652 districts, awareness and availability of high quality affordable generic medicines has increased in the country. About 10-15 lakh people benefit from Janaushadhi medicines per day and the market share of generic medicines 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 medicines 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.1000 crores for common citizens, as these medicines are cheaper by 50% to 90% of average market price.

Secretary, Pharmaceuticals, J.P. Prakash in his opening remarks informed that as part of the celebrations of Janaushadhi Diwas tomorrow, programmes would be organized at all PMBJP Kendras to increase the awareness about the scheme. These programmes would witness participation of doctors, health experts, NGOs and beneficiaries, which would help in spreading awareness about the scheme to common masses.