Parliamentary panel urges AYUSH Ministry to expedite co-branding at Jan Aushadhi Kendras

The committee noted that the decision was taken during the review meeting chaired by the Hon'ble Prime Minister on 27 February 2025 to leverage Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras for the promotion of AYUSH medicines through appropriate co-branding.

“However, the Committee is of the view that merely ‘exploring further action’ is an inadequate response to an executive directive aimed at reducing out-of-pocket healthcare costs,” the report stated. 

According to the report, utilising the established nationwide retail network of Jan Aushadhi Kendras would exponentially increase the accessibility and affordability of essential, quality-tested AYUSH pharmaceuticals. The Committee also appreciated the diverse outreach strategies adopted by the National Institutes and Research Councils, such as the co-location of Unani and Siddha OPDs in major allopathic hospitals by CCRUM and CCRS, the adoption of rural villages by NEIAH, and the establishment of satellite clinics by ITRA.

Concurrently, the Committee noted that the broader mainstreaming of Ayush through co-location at Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs), and District Hospitals (DHs) is currently contingent upon the manpower support and demand projected by States and Union Territories in their respective Programme Implementation Plans (PIPs) and State Annual Action Plans (SAAPs).

“The Committee is of the view that relying entirely on the proactive requests of individual States leads to severe regional disparities in healthcare accessibility, and that highly cost-effective integrative models should not be restricted to specific autonomous institutes but must be universally adopted as standard operating procedure,” the report mentioned.

The committee also recommended that the Ministry of AYUSH, in strict coordination with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, formulate a mandatory baseline policy requiring a minimum percentage of all newly sanctioned and existing PHCs, CHCs, and DHs to feature operational, co-located AYUSH facilities. “

The Central Government should aggressively leverage the National Ayush Mission (NAM) to actively incentivise States to meet these integration targets rather than passively awaiting proposals. Furthermore, the Ministry must institutionalise the satellite clinic model across all its institutes to systematically cover underserved areas, tribal regions, and vulnerable populations nationwide,” the report stated.

The Committee further suggested that the Ministry establish a centralized mandate to integrate eSanjeevani and comprehensive Hospital Management Information Systems (HMIS) across all AYUSH dispensaries, peripheral institutes, and clinical units across the country to guarantee continuous remote access to affordable care.

The Committee further recommended that the Ministry urgently allocate targeted funding to upgrade the bed capacity and diagnostic infrastructure of smaller institutes like NISR. Moreover, simultaneously, the Ministry must ensure that a universally subsidized tariff structure, covering registration, diagnostics, and essential medicines, is implemented across all National Institutes to genuinely benefit economically disadvantaged populations.